BEIJING — President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping offered friendly vows to deepen trade ties and downplayed their rivalry as two days of high-stakes meetings started on Thursday, with the U.S. leader greeted by a crowd of flag-waving schoolchildren and troops marching in precise lockstep.
Trump’s motorcade passed underneath the watchful eye of Communist China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, whose face hangs above the entrance to the Forbidden City at the top of Tiananmen Square, before he rolled up to the Great Hall of the People for the start of his meetings with Xi.
The ceremony — with a military brass band playing “The Star Spangled Banner,” a 21-gun salute and scores of marching service members, all of identical height — almost exactly matched the last time Trump visited Beijing early in his first term in 2017.
But the world has not stood still, and China is far more powerful than it was then. Trump, meanwhile, has led the United States into a war with Iran that has sealed much of the world’s energy supply into the Persian Gulf and driven up prices at home. He is looking to Xi to pressure Iran to free traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and back away from its nuclear program.
Xi, meanwhile, faces a cooling economy of his own and wants to present China as the stable alternative to a U.S. that has swung on trade and security during Trump’s second term.
Neither leader appeared eager to rock the boat as they embarked on their meetings. Xi emphasized stability, while Trump talked of the two leaders’ personal relationship.
“That was an honor like few have ever seen before,” Trump told Xi as they started their conversation in the Great Hall of the People. “You and I have known each other now for a long time. In fact, the longest relationship of our two countries that any president and president has had, and that’s, to me, an honor.”
Xi, who has led China since 2013, has presided over an unprecedented centralization of power, purging opponents and entrenching himself as a leader with few rivals. Trump emphasized his “respect” on Thursday.
“Such respect for China, the job you’ve done,” Trump said. “You’re a great leader. I say it to everybody.”
Trump‘s emphasis was consistent with his view of the world as ruled by the inclinations and whims of powerful individuals.
Xi answered with a far wider overview of the U.S.-China relationship, presenting a vision of a joint Chinese-American rule over the world and declaring his desire to avoid a “Thucydides trap,” a reference to the ancient Greek historian’s description of rival powers pushed toward war as one seeks to displace the other.
“The two sides should be partners rather than rivals, achieving mutual success and shared prosperity, and finding a proper way for major powers to coexist in the new era,” Xi said. “Leaders of major countries like you and me must jointly answer questions of our times.”
Despite the talk of partnership and friendship, frictions continue over trade, military rivalries and other topics, but discussion of them appeared likely to be exchanged only behind closed doors. Their first encounter lasted more than two hours — far longer than was scheduled.
In the meeting, Xi told Trump that Taiwan is the most important issue between Beijing and Washington, warning him that “if handled poorly, the two countries will come into confrontation or even conflict, pushing the overall China-US relationship into a very dangerous situation,” according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
When Trump’s motorcade rolled up, the leaders shook hands, then greeted each other’s dignitaries. Xi walked down the line of U.S. officials, shaking the hands of the men who have presided over the attack on Iran that has the potential to reshape Middle East politics in a way few other events have in decades.
He ended the line at Eric and Lara Trump — family members of the president who have been seeking to tap into the vast profits to be made from the Chinese market.
Then came the military salute, the band and the cheering schoolchildren, who waved U.S. and Chinese flags and flowers, and appeared to delight Trump, who clapped and gave them two thumbs up.
After the meeting, the two presidents toured Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, one of the city’s prime historic sites.
“Great. Great place. Incredible. China’s beautiful,” Trump said when reporters asked how the talks went.
Chinese state media, reflecting the message that the Chinese government wants to deliver, praised the encounter.
State news agency Xinhua said in an editorial that with the Trump-Xi summit, China and the U.S. are “sending a signal of stabilizing when the world is faced with systemic pressure.”
The nationalist tabloid Global Times softened its usually hawkish tone, saying that “the future is bright” for U.S.-China relations.
Trump said ahead of the meeting that he planned to press Xi on Iran, but he has made clear that his deepest desire is to improve trade ties with China, delivering deals that he can say bolster the U.S. economy.
There was little sign of the confrontational approach that he took at the end of his first term as he sought to bar Chinese technology from U.S. markets. Instead, top U.S. business executives accompanied him as he sought to deepen investment flows between the countries.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang all stood behind Trump’s top officials as the leaders walked the red carpet at the arrival ceremony. Xi met with U.S. business leaders at the Great Hall after his meeting with Trump.
“Meetings went well,” Huang told reporters as he departed the Great Hall of the People. “Mr. Xi and President Trump were incredible.”
Former officials said that both leaders may be getting what they need out of the encounter, but that the meeting is unlikely to fundamentally reshape the relationship.
“Xi is giving Trump the TV-ready spectacle that he was hoping for,” said Julian Gewirtz, who was a director for China policy on the Biden administration’s National Security Council. “China is hoping to trade symbolism for substance, using protocol and Trump’s preference for pageantry to hold off a return to economic escalation and buy time for China to build up its strength.”
The size and makeup of the U.S. CEO delegation in Beijing has infused hope into the possibility of progress in negotiations over trade and investment, said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University.
But overall expectations are still measured. An October meeting between the two leaders in South Korea came after China imposed restrictions on rare earth exports following U.S. tariffs, and had a sense of “crisis management,” he said. “If this summit can be a stepping stone for the future, that would be good enough.”
Unlike the U.S., Da Wei added, Chinese leadership does not primarily see the meeting as an opportunity for dealmaking, but as a platform to signal outwardly that the U.S.-China relationship, though difficult, is stable.
That would help reassure investors and businesses with U.S. interests that they can still work in China and not have to choose between the two countries. More so than any specific deals, “these are the signals that China wants,” he said.
Tan reported from Singapore. Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Huiyee Chiew and Lyric Lee in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.
The post Trump courts Xi amid Iran war and trade tensions appeared first on Washington Post.
