For Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the 43 hours that President Donald Trump was in Beijing was plenty of time to score diplomatic points while conceding nothing to his U.S. rival.
There were no major breakthroughs and few agreements, but there weren’t any blunders, and the frictionless summit brought China closer to a more stable footing in its most important — and often volatile — bilateral relationship.
That, it seems, was precisely Xi’s objective.
“China’s primary goal,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, “is to aim for stability of the relationship: ‘Please don’t bother us. Please don’t harass us. … And let’s find some rules of engagement that will allow us to proceed in relative peace and relative stability.’”
At the start of the summit, Xi deftly centered the issue of Taiwan, the disputed democratic island over which China claims sovereignty, putting Trump and future U.S. presidents on notice that they risk “clashes and conflicts” if Beijing’s red lines are crossed.
China also wants to pivot from tumultuous years of trade tensions and strategic competition with the United States to something more manageable, experts said.
To that end, Xi hailed a “new positioning” between the world’s two biggest economies, which he called a “constructive, strategically stable relationship,” a framework that Chinese state media said was meant to guide relations through the Trump term and beyond.
Stability is key for Xi, who is looking to draw attention away from his nation’s economic stagnation and to show the Chinese people that his government is working to improve the business environment and boost foreign trade.
“That stability, in turn, gives more breathing room and allows China to better focus on its own stuff,” said Song Guoyou, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. It also places China “in a more predictable and secure international environment,” he said.
The absence of tangible outcomes also has risk, leaving plenty of issues unresolved, particularly on trade. Without concrete agreements, experts said, it’s unclear what exactly is stabilizing the relationship.
But Xi also succeeded in presenting himself as a leader at the height of his power, one who did not need to boast of being part of what Trump called the “G2″ because he still has friends and allies that he has no interest in offending, unlike Trump who makes no secret of the view that his America needs no one.
While Trump returned to Washington to grapple with his stalled war against Iran, falling poll numbers and rising inflation, Xi will now turn his focus to another big meeting, with Russia’s Vladimir Putin visiting Beijing this week.
China and Russia, longtime partners in the U.N. Security Council against Western hegemony, have emphasized in recent years their cooperation in constructing a multipolar alternative to the U.S.-led global order.
The United States, while still able to flex military muscle abroad, has lost sway as Trump has alienated traditional allies in Europe and cut off foreign aid and other assistance long relied on by many nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Trump brought an entourage of CEOs to Beijing, but they left without announcing any major deals, creating an impression — reinforced by the president who boasted of introducing them to Xi — that the titans of American industry traveled around the world just for the privilege of shaking his hand.
Xi, by contrast, convinced Trump that China supports his efforts to end the war in Iran, while offering no specific commitments and subtly criticizing the U.S.-Israeli military campaign. “There is no point in continuing this conflict which should not have happened in the first place,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman said during the summit.
While Trump hoped to get China’s help in ending the war, the issue is thorny for Beijing because of its relationships throughout the Middle East, including with Israel and Persian Gulf states, and a longtime partnership with Iran.
Trump claimed Xi offered to “be of help” in facilitating a deal to end the war, insisting that it’s not in China’s interest for Iran to possess nuclear weapons.
“He would like to see a deal made. And oh, he did offer. He said, ‘If I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help,’” Trump said in an interview on Fox News.
But the Chinese side issued a more measured take, reiterating Beijing’s previously announced plan for restoring peace and stability, which calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and eventual restoration of safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz — proposals that highlight the relatively hands-off approach Beijing has taken regarding the war.
“China will continue to act in line with President Xi Jinping’s four propositions,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
That same day, Iran’s semiofficial state media reported that Chinese-flagged vessels were among the ships that were approved to cross the Strait of Hormuz, “based on the deep relations” between the two nations.
China’s construct of a more stable relationship with the U.S. calls for cooperation with measured competition, while managing differences. Beijing wants to recalibrate its relations with the U.S. on its own terms and have something to fall back on if the U.S. starts to take positions that China doesn’t agree with, experts said.
“This framework of strategic stability that was articulated by President Xi has some very specific goals on the part of the Chinese,” said Kurt Campbell, who oversaw Asia at the National Security Council in the Biden administration and is chairman of the Asia Group consultancy, in a briefing.
The move underscores how the Chinese feel they have gained a stronger position through years of trade tensions with the U.S. — including the ability to retaliate and cause significant damage to the U.S. economy, Sun said.
On Taiwan, China sought to push Trump for concessions that would weaken the island’s ability to defend itself in case of an attack by Beijing.
Trump appeared to have taken Xi’s position seriously, saying after the meeting that he had not decided whether to proceed with a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan — leaving Taipei in a state of uncertainty — while insisting that he alone would decide whether to sell weapons.
“We’re not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China is going to be OK with that,” Trump told Fox News on Friday. “It depends on China. It’s a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly. It’s a lot of weapons.”
In response, Taiwanese officials emphasized that military sales are based on U.S. law and provide a mutual deterrence against regional threats.
“Taiwan’s defense procurement decisions must not be subject to interference from any third country, and even less so from China,” Chen Kuan-ting, chair of the Foreign and National Defense Committee in Taiwan, said in a statement.
Still, Trump largely remained consistent with the U.S. stance on cross-strait relations, which came as a relief in Taiwan.
“Even after Trump departed China aboard Air Force One, at least publicly, his response to Xi Jinping’s remarks on Taiwan remained highly cautious,” said Wu Jieh-min, cross-strait relations expert at the Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology in Taipei.
“For Taiwan, a more manageable U.S.–China relationship can be positive, as long as Taiwan’s interests are not harmed or used as bargaining chips,” Wu said. “The current situation remains unclear. We need to pay close attention.”
China clearly wanted to put on a good show for Trump, the first U.S. president to visit in nine years.
Notably, Xi brought Trump to Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party and State Council that symbolizes China’s ultimate political power, which only a few outsiders have been allowed to enter.
The two leaders walked side by side as Xi emphasized the rarity of their visit. Xi added that he chose the venue to reciprocate the hospitality Trump had shown him at his Mar-a-Lago Club in 2017, shortly after Trump’s election.
“We usually don’t hold diplomatic events here,” Xi told Trump. “Even after we started having some, it’s still extremely rare. For example, Putin has been here.”
Trump appeared pleased with the visit, posting on social media after leaving Beijing a Chinese academic’s analysis that Trump would rate the summit a “9.99 out of 10.”
Trump also said he had invited Xi to the U.S. for a follow-up visit and lavished praise on the Chinese leader, even complimenting his looks and height.
Xi will now look to assure Putin that “new improvements in China-U.S. ties won’t affect China’s friendship with Russia,” Song said.
The back-to-back summits also allow Xi to flex his diplomatic stature. By putting his country on a more stable path with the U.S., he can use that leverage to navigate the triangular relationship among the world’s three largest nuclear powers, experts said.
“Within the strategic triangle, which country has … the maximum ability to manipulate relationship with the other two? I think China sees itself as now in that position,” Sun said.
Rebecca Tan in Singapore and Mohamad El Chamaa in Lebanon contributed to this report.
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