Riding high, Xi looks to soothe Trump as US pressures China
BEIJING: When they met at US President Donald Trump’s Mara-Lago estate in April, China’s President Xi Jinping found a way to charm the mercurial former real estate mogul.
Trump hailed the ‘good chemistry’ of the sunny summit in Florida and predicted “lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.”
The ‘bromance’ is set to continue when Xi returns the favour by laying on a lavish welcome for Trump’s visit starting on Wednesday.
Xi has grown more powerful since their last meeting, while Trump is under a political cloud after his former campaign manager was indicted in an intensifying investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Chinese experts say Beijing has learned to manage Trump, a real-estate mogul who had never held elective office before becoming president, and whose administration in its first 10 months has been turbulent.
“China has an objective view of him. We’re going to make him feel comfortable,” said Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renmin University.
“He may end up being re-elected. We need to look at this from a longterm perspective, and not view him as an ‘other’ or a joke.” Trump clearly respects Xi. While railing against the US trade deficit with China, he has put the blame for that squarely on his predecessors and expressed admiration for China’s leader.
In a congratulatory phone call, Trump hailed the ‘extraordinary elevation’ of Xi, whose political thoughts were enshrined in the Communist Party’s constitution last month during a congress marking the start of his second term. In an interview with Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs, Trump gushed that “some people might call him the king of China” and “people say we have the best relationship of any president president ”.
China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said Trump will receive a ‘state visitplus’ experience in Beijing.
While it is unclear what the ‘plus’ means – Trump is expected to go to the Forbidden City but China has released few details – a protocol that lets Trump ‘rejoice in grandiosity’ will be important to keeping relations stable, said Teng Jianqun, head of American Studies at Foreign Ministry think-tank China Institute for International Studies.
“We must seize upon his special characteristics, such as liking instant gratification, and set up some things that bring immediate results,” he said.
On the commercial front, that means a slew of deals – and worries among some in the US business community that the transactional Trump will be placated by a handful of contract wins instead of resolving long-standing complaints over discriminatory Chinese policies and market access restrictions.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told reporters on Friday that China would ‘create a good atmosphere’ with informal activities for the two presidents, so they have ample time to talk about important issues. Zheng said that at the April summit, Trump and his wife Melania had extended an “extremely warm, friendly and thoughtful” reception to Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan. “The Chinese people demand that courtesy be repaid in kind,” he said.
Trump is a popular figure for many in China, who admire his business acumen; he is not the divisive figure he is in the United States and its allies in Europe and elsewhere.
The WeChat account of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily marked China’s announcement of his visit with a picture of a beaming Trump and the headline ‘Trump’s coming!’
A contrast between the two presidents was set at the start of the year.
Days ahead of Trump taking office, Xi was the keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, offering a vigorous defence of globalisation. Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership his first week in office, distancing America from its Asian allies. — Reuters
China has an objective view of him. We’re going to make him feel comfortable. Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renmin University