China’s President Xi, Skipping UN, Looks Ahead to White House Summit With Trump Covering Wide Range of Thorny Issues

President Xi Jinping of Communist China is so eager to sit down with President Trump at the White House on September 24 that he’s skipping the annual talkfest at the UN General Assembly at which he, like Mr. Trump, would be expected to give a major address.That’s the sense that Mr. Xi is giving as he prepares to press the president on problems that might seem insoluble. He evidently believes that he has more to gain, in practical terms, by pressing Mr. Trump on issues ranging from tariffs to AI to Taiwan than in talking to a roomful of UN diplomats.It’s quite possible, however, that neither Mr. Xi nor Mr. Trump will gain much from a summit that could end up like their meeting in Beijing in May. That tete-a-tete produced a blizzard of statements and comments, beginning with their agreement on the need “to build a constructive relationship of strategic stability” but almost nothing of serious substance.The chances of doing much better this time around did not seem high, at least to judge by the outcome of a meeting in Ashville, North Carolina, of the G20, the finance chiefs of 20 nations convened to hash out economic problems.China’s refusal to sign the final statement from the meeting did not augur well for Messrs. Trump and Xi doing much better at the White House than they had in their meeting in May in the seat of Chinese power in Beijing known as the Zhongnanhai.China’s English-language state newspaper, Global Times, quoted America’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent as saying only China, among the 20 members of the G20, had “not agreed to address streams of ‘cheap exports’” that are blamed for huge imbalances in two-way trade.“What the G20 actually discussed, what problems it helped solve, or what other finance ministers said is largely drowned out,” said Global Times, “by a chorus that spreads with almost viral uniformity.” Accompanying the article was a cartoon of an angry Uncle Sam wagging his index finger with the words “Blame China” scrawled on the palm of his hand.An English newspaper in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post, listed issues that might come up in the summit but are so far from being resolved as to give the impression that they’ll be glossed over or set aside.The head of the US-China Business Council says “neither side has ‘‘initiated a consultation process’ or is ready yet for private sector discussions,“ said the paper, a conduit for news and views from Beijing since Communist China took over the former British colony in 1997.“Chinese officials rattled by White House chaos weeks ahead of Xi-Trump summit,” the paper headlined. “Basic details of planned AI talks remain uncertain,” said another headline, “as Xi’s US visit approaches.”Also interesting, as a reflection perhaps of Mr. Xi’s wishful thinking, was an “exclusive” report in the paper about War Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Claims” that he’s “close to exit raise questions over future US-China defense ties,” the paper claimed.In that context, Mr. Xi is sure to impress on Mr. Trump the importance of holding off on providing military aid to the Free China government on the independent Chinese island province of Taiwan. Mr. Trump is still weighing whether to advance a $14 billion military aid package, already approved by Congress, while dangling it as a central point in negotiations.Apparently not worried about all such questions, Mr. Trump appeared ebullient as reported by the Morning Post In a dispatch from Washington by veteran American correspondent Mark Magnier.The paper quoted Mr. Trump as telling reporters in the oval office: “We have the president of China coming on the 24th. That’ll be very exciting. Great, love to have him. A lot of good things to discuss, very, very productive things to discuss with President Xi.To which he reportedly added, “AI is going up, and we’re leading China in AI very substantially.” Mr. Xi’s trip to Washington follows a flurry of globe-trotting diplomacy in which he dominated a forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan and then went on to Cairo for a summit with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.In both visits Mr. Xi pressed China’s belt-and-road initiative in which the Chinese are building highways and ports across Asia and the middle east in competition with America in the Indo-Pacific.Mr. Xi hinted at the military repercussions of his initiative in a four-point proposal for “a new security architecture for the Middle East.” Beijing’s Xinhua news agency said the proposal envisioned “common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security” — obviously in competition with America and its allies.

China’s President Xi, Skipping UN, Looks Ahead to White House Summit With Trump Covering Wide Range of Thorny Issues

China’s President Xi, Skipping UN, Looks Ahead to White House Summit With Trump Covering Wide Range of Thorny Issues

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