Opinion | Biden Plies Xi for a Fentanyl Deal Beijing Can’t Deliver

There’s nothing wrong in principle with the sort of summit that occurred this week between President Biden and Xi Jinping. But there is something wrong with the pointed denial of reality that is coming to mark the American approach to such meetings.

The central problem in such a negotiation is that what Mr. Xi might want to offer the U.S., he can’t deliver, and what he could deliver, he doesn’t want to offer. It’s not clear whether Washington understands the difference.