China-US summit will be casual but not relaxed

SHANGHAI (Reuters) — Meetings between leaders of the US and China have mostly been dour, orchestrated affairs conducted by teams of men in dark suits. But China’s new President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama are shedding the script and neckties for their first summit, an informal get-together this week in the California desert.

Since President Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972, which broke decades of estrangement between the two countries, the summits have been carefully plotted rituals. One exception has been a visit by President Jiang Zemin to George W. Bush’s ranch in Texas in 2002, but it was only for a few hours.

But an informal setting suits both Obama and Xi and the payoff could be huge if they can build a rapport that brings the world’s top two economies closer. Nevertheless, the shortsleeves meeting is shaping up as anything but relaxing — the two sides have to overcome differences on cyber-security, the South China Sea, North Korea and other issues.

“You’d never imagine that other Chinese leaders would agree to such a kind of meeting,” said Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat, of the summit on June 7 and 8, at a lush private estate called “Sunnylands” in the resort community of Rancho Mirage.

“That’s a very important message to the Americans: that we’d like to engage, we’d like to have discussions with them. I think Xi is more accessible and this will be a very good opportunity for Xi and Obama to build a better personal relationship,” said Ruan, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, a think-tank linked to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.