The two showed off their achievements as leaders of great nations, but for outsiders like Indonesians who are still struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden’s remarks are more encouraging, as he gave hope through his emphasis on the US’ progress to crush the coronavirus within six months. It is clear that Biden will focus on the domestic agenda of uniting a divided nation, to create more jobs and advance the economy. Foreign affairs will be a nonpriority, which is worrying for countries that still need the US to counterbalance a rising China.

President Xi’s speech is more worrying, not just because many Indonesians feel the historical trauma of communism but also because he displayed China’s muscles and implied its readiness for confrontation, including on the issue of Taiwan. China unilaterally claims and controls nearly the whole South China Sea, causing tension with ASEAN members.

Biden said the world’s most powerful economy is very close to victory in the war against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 600,000 lives there, mostly during the Donald Trump administration. Biden is an inch closer to his target of vaccinating 70 percent of the population to reach herd immunity.

“Two hundred and forty-five years ago, we declared our independence from a distant king. Today, we’re closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus,” Biden said at the gathering on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC.

The president is trying to unite the nation, which is deeply divided between the Republicans, more precisely the die-hard supporters of Trump, and the Democrats. Many Trump followers have refused to be vaccinated.

Meanwhile, President Xi did not touch on the pandemic issue at all, as China had succeeded in reining in the virus before other countries did. He highlighted the journey of the nation in the last 100 years under the guidance of the CCP. True, China is totally different now from what it was a century ago.

“We, the Chinese, are a people who uphold justice and are not intimidated by threats of force. As a nation, we have a strong sense of pride and confidence. We have never bullied, oppressed or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will,” President Xi said in his speech.

Xi’s message is mostly intended for domestic consumption amid multilateral efforts to contain China, as evident in the Indo-Pacific region concept and the Quad group – the US, Japan, India and Australia — clearly aimed at confronting China multilaterally.

“Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people,” Xi warned.

China is still learning to promote soft-power over hard-power diplomacy, while the US is busy practicing what it has preached to the world.

For their own reasons, Biden and Xi deserve to be joyful.

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