President Xi of the People’s Republic of China,  looking ahead to the presidency of Donald Trump, told President Biden on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru, that Sino-American relations “would make considerable progress” if they sought “common ground while shelving differences.”

Mr. Xi did not have to mention Mr. Trump’s call for 60 percent tariffs on imports from China when he warned that the two nations “would roil the relationship, or even set it back,” according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, “if they pursue vicious competition and seek to hurt each other.” 

Judging from Xinhua’s English-language account of the meeting, Mr. Xi was not especially interested in whatever the Americans might say about North Korean troops in Ukraine or North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s rising threats against his enemies, notably South Korea.

The South China Morning Post’s Mark Magnier, reporting from Lima, quoted Mr. Xi as assuring Mr. Biden that “China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences, so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-US relationship for the benefit of the two peoples.”

Mr. Biden was equally diplomatic, telling Mr. Xi, “our conversations have always been candid and always been frank,” designed  to “prevent miscalculations” and “ensure the competition between our two countries will not veer into conflict.”

Mr. Xi, as reported by Xinhua, cast none-too-subtle aspersions on American policy toward China. “Major country competition should not be the underlying logic of the times,” he was quoted as saying. “Small yard, high fences are not what the major countries should pursue.”

Pursuing China’s expansionism in the Pacific, however, Mr. Xi joined Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, at the opening of a major new Chinese port in the town of Chancay 48 miles up the coast from Lima. The port, said Mr. Xi, as quoted in China’s Global Times, “will enable Peru to put in place a multi-dimensional, diverse and efficient network…. from Peru to Latin America and further on to the Caribbean.”

Going through much the same litany of issues covered in their summit a year ago in Woodside, California, Mr. Biden “raised concerns” about China’s “unfair trade policies,” according to the White House, but avoided talk of reprisals.  His comments had a pro forma tone as he “condemned the deployment of thousands” of North Korean troops to Russia for the war in Ukraine and called for “peace and stability” between China and Taiwan, which China harasses by air and sea.

Mr. Biden appeared more impassioned about preserving the near-mystical “spirit of Camp David” than he was in disputes with China. At a trilateral Friday in Lima, Mr.. Biden, South Korea’s President Yoon and Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looked ahead to the presidency of a man who during his first term threatened to withdraw troops and bases from Korea and Japan  if they didn’t pay enough to have them there. 

The Biden administration, in a final flurry of diplomacy, has been assuring the South Koreans and Japanese of the continuity of cooperation pledged at Camp David in August 2023 when Mr. Biden hosted Mr. Yoon and Japan’s then-prime minister, Fumio Kishida. 

As if to Trump-proof the “spirit of Camp David,” Messrs. Biden, Yoon and Ishiba agreed to set up a secretariat “responsible for coordinating and implementing our shared commitments.” The secretariat, they said in a joint statement, would “ensure that the work we do together further aligns our objectives and actions to make the Indo-Pacific a thriving, connected, resilient, stable and secure region.”

 South Korea officials are putting their best face on fears that Mr. Trump, as president, may have his own  ideas.

“What would happen if South Korea were to face another security crisis,” asked Mr. Yoon’s former foreign minister, Park Jin, in answer to my question at a gathering at George Washington University. “The U.S. would come to help us,” he said. “The most efficient option is to maintain U.S. bases on the Korean peninsula” — a reference to Mr. Trump’s hints at closing bases.

But what if North Korea fires nuclear warheads against the South? “The nuclear umbrella will be activated and maintained,” Mr. Park told the Sun, calling for “strong, extended deterrence.”

Beyond rhetoric and pledges, however,  the Americans and their Northeast Asian allies have done little to improve their defenses, much less retaliate, as tensions have ratcheted up to their highest level in decades.  Besides sending about 12,000 troops to Russia, Mr. Kim  has declared South Korea “the enemy” and tested  missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to targets from Korea to Japan to North America.

Most recently, he’s called for the mass production of “suicide attack drones” that may well be produced with Russian technology. Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency reported he oversaw drone tests “to precisely attack any enemy targets on the ground and at sea.”