Yet an off-the-cuff remark that Biden made at the end of the day risked throwing a wrench into the script, just hours after the leaders bid farewell. It reflected just how fragile the relationship is, regardless of the calm that aides wanted to project ahead of elections in Taiwan and then the U.S. next year.
As he was walking off the stage after a news conference, Biden was asked if he still thought Xi was a dictator, as he has previously said. "He is," the president replied.
"He's a dictator in the sense that he is a guy that runs a country that is a communist country based on a form of government that is totally different from ours."
The comment has rankles the Chinese side after what was seemingly a diplomatic win for them on the contentious issue of Taiwan.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday said Biden's rhetoric was an irresponsible political manipulation, according to Reuters. "There are always ill-intentioned people who try to drive a wedge between China-U.S. relations, which will not succeed," ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
In the post-summit briefing, Biden was asked if the recent crises in Ukraine and Gaza would alter his previous commitment to defend Taiwan from any Chinese military action.
"I reiterate what I've said since I've become president, and what every previous president has said, that we maintain the agreement that there is a One China policy," Biden told reporters. "That's not going to change and so that's about the extent to which we discussed it."
Meanwhile, according to a Xinhua News Agency readout, Xi said Taiwan is the "most important and sensitive" issue in U.S.-China relations and that Washington should embody its stance of not supporting Taiwan independence in concrete actions, stop arming Taiwan and support China's peaceful reunification.
China will "eventually be reunified and inevitably be reunified," Xi said.
Analysts had noted before the meeting that Beijing wanted Washington to reiterate the One China policy -- which acknowledges the Chinese view that there is only one China -- but stay silent publicly about U.S. commitments about arms sales to Taiwan.
Biden's answer at the news conference fit that scenario, but his "dictator" remark could trigger a new diplomatic backlash.