Tramp warms to China

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump met President Xi Jinping in Beijing yesterday during his first state visit to China, expected to further enhance the strategic understanding and friendship between the two countries and their heads of state, and hopefully elevate bilateral ties to a new level.

Following the Xi-Trump meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, in April, important breakthroughs have been achieved in Sino-US relations. The meeting established a positive working relationship between the two heads of state, with Trump saying he got on very well with Xi. At that meeting, the two leaders announced that four high-level dialogue mechanisms would be established and a 100-day Action Plan implemented to strengthen bilateral economic ties. The first rounds of dialogue have already boosted bilateral relations.

These positive developments reflect two major transformations in Trump’s China policy. The first is a shift in his understanding of China from a subjective level to an objective level, and the second, a shift in his policy approach toward China from emotional irrationality to constructive realism.

This change has come because of (several) factors, including that Trump is a businessman, not part of the US political establishment. He does not share the same Cold War mentality that some US politicians do, and is perhaps less biased against the idea of China’s peaceful rise.

Since the factors pushing Trump toward China will not disappear, it is expected relations between the two countries will be better than they were under his predecessor.