San Francisco CNN —President Joe Biden hopes to walk away from his closely watched summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday having put the US-China relationship on steadier footing after months of tension between the two superpowers. Biden administration officials have been working ever since to restore the channel, but those efforts were hampered by the tense episode involving a Chinese spy balloon that Biden ordered shot down earlier this year. And American officials have watched carefully as China scales up its military exercises in the water and air around the island. A political tight ropeAs Biden was preparing for Wednesday’s summit, Republicans questioned his decision to seek a meeting with Xi. The deal, which has been a priority for the Biden administration, would target companies that produce and export the source material to make the deadly synthetic opioid.

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