Trump Puts on a Great Show for Xi Jinping but Appears To Skim or Skip Divisive Issues in Less Than Two Hours of Talks

The grand spectacle of President Trump’s summit with the president of Communist China, Xi Jinping, hid an underlying truth: they appear to have accomplished very little in a conversation that lasted less than two hours. That amount of time is far less than what was devoted to the ceremonies at Joint Base Andrews and the White House, their public statements, the glittering state dinner and all the other touches needed to make the summit a success.Whatever transpired between them in private remains shrouded in mystery, but the Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, hinted at one of the top issues. In a bulletin marked “urgent,” Xinhua reported that Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump, “China hopes the U.S. side will adhere to the correct position of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ and handle the Taiwan question with prudence to lay a solid foundation for bilateral strategic cooperation and the development of China-U.S. ties.”Just what the Chinese regard as “prudence” was not specified, but it’s certain Mr. Xi would be upset if Mr. Trump signs off on the sale to Free Taiwan of another $10 billion in arms as approved by Congress. Otherwise, there’s no telling how or even if the two presidents covered a raft of other issues, ranging from China’s support of Iran and North Korea to competition from the Indo-Pacific to the middle east, including China’s claim to the South China Sea, to AI.Nor is it known what they said about the deal already struck by the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the Chinese, in talks in New York before the summit for extending a truce on tariffs to January 10. The Chinese, disturbed by the ups and downs of Mr. Trump’s tariff decisions and also their own domestic problems, would like to see the truce last longer, but no issue rankles Beijing so much as Taiwan.“In his talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House,” said the second sentence of the two-sentence Xinhua bulletin, “Xi also said China’s position on safeguarding its national unity and territorial integrity is crystal clear.” The inference was that Washington must revise the ritual statement, which the Americans have been repeating for years, that they’re not advocating “independence” for the self-governing island province. Rather, Mr. Xi implied, Mr. Trump should explicitly oppose Taiwan independence.The showmanship of the whole occasion, however, gave the impression of a vast improvement in Sino-American relations from early in Mr. Trump’s second presidency when the secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, spurred on by the undersecretary, Elbridge Colby, treated China as America’s main enemy.The closest that Mr. Trump came to acknowledging problems between Washington and Beijing was to remark that he and Mr. Xi “understand that we represent different systems” – a statement that critics see as a vast understatement of the gap between China’s communist dictatorship and America’s free-wheeling democracy. Nonetheless, said Mr. Trump before diving into a sumptuous state dinner said to have been “influenced” by Melania, “the ties between our people must endure” so “we can continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security.”Mr. Xi in his pre-dinner remarks was just as effusive, declaring “China and the United States, as two major countries, stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation.” Incredibly, Mr. Xi also harked back to the history in which the Americans fought against Japan in World War II. He overlooked, of course, America’s fervent support of the anti-Communist “Nationalist” Chinese forces of Chiang Kai-shek against the victorious founder of the Communist regime, Mao Zedung. Rather, he said that “during the Second World War, Chinese and Americans fought shoulder to shoulder against fascist aggression.“The audience at the dinner included a galaxy of America’s biggest billionaires with deep stakes in dealing with China. Among them were Elon Musk of Tesla; the founder and chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg; the Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang; the executive chairman of Apple, Tim Cook, and the chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, as well as the top guns in Mr. Trump’s administration plus his family members and Chinese officials in Mr. Xi’s entourage.Mr. Trump appeared to have thought of everything except, perhaps, a specific agenda with which to confront Mr. Xi in their one-on-one conversation. A special touch was his gift to Mr. Xi of the statue of a bald American eagle. Also, on Friday, before Mr. Xi goes home, Mr. Trump is showing him around historic archives, including copies of the Declaration of Independence and the constitution, pointed reminders of American history and strength.

Trump Puts on a Great Show for Xi Jinping but Appears To Skim or Skip Divisive Issues in Less Than Two Hours of Talks

Trump Puts on a Great Show for Xi Jinping but Appears To Skim or Skip Divisive Issues in Less Than Two Hours of Talks

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