What was actually achieved at Trump and Xi’s ‘stalemate summit’ in Beijing? | Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing — the first U.S. presidential visit in almost a decade — ended with great fanfare but little clarity about what was actually accomplished.
Trump said Friday that he and China’s leader Xi Jinping “have solved a lot of different problems that other people can’t solve.” However, he did not provide much detail on what these solutions were.
“My guess is that despite all the ceremony and summit spectacle, at the end of the day this summit won’t be that big of a deal,” said Amanda Hsiao, China director at consultancy and consultancy firm Eurasia Group. “The essence of the relationship has not changed.”
China’s statement on Friday’s latest bilateral meeting between Xi and Trump gave little concrete information about what was accomplished in the so-called “deadlock summit” meetings.
In the hours after leaving Beijing, Trump gave more details about what he discussed with the Chinese leader in an interview with Fox News. Here is the situation regarding the main problems of the summit.
Iranian
The crisis in the Middle East came to the fore during the talks. Before and during the summit, Trump and his administration officials gave mixed messages about how much help they were seeking from China to push Iran to the negotiating table.
“We discussed Iran,” Trump said Friday. “We feel so similar [how] We want it to end. We don’t want them to have nuclear weapons. “We want the Straits to be opened,” he said.
But China won’t focus on what more support might look like. The foreign ministry said on Friday: “There is no reason for this conflict, which should never have happened, to continue.”
The report referred to Xi’s four-point proposal for peace in the Middle East, announced before Trump’s visit, adding that China “works tirelessly to end wars and strive for peace.”
Trump said Friday that he is considering lifting sanctions on Chinese companies that buy Iranian oil and will make that decision in the next few days.
Taiwan
Trump told Fox News he was still considering whether to proceed with a major arms package for Taiwan planned for this year.
Canceling the record $14bn (£10.5bn) package would satisfy one of Beijing’s key demands on the self-governing island it claims.
Observers expected the United States to move little on Taiwan, and Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, insisted there was no change in policy in Beijing. The United States does not officially recognize Taiwan but provides Taiwan with the means to defend itself in the hope that U.S. weapons will deter Beijing from launching an attack.
“A decision to indefinitely delay the $14 billion package would conflict with the Trump administration’s stated priorities of strengthening military deterrence along the first island chain and preventing a war over Taiwan,” Hsiao said.
Trump said he had not made any commitments to Xi on Taiwan. Xi warned Trump that Taiwan was the “most important” issue in US-China relations.
Trade
Trump said Friday he had “great trade deals” with Xi. But it is not yet clear what these are.
Before the summit, there was talk of trade priorities being the three Bs: beef, (soy)beans and Boeings.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said on Friday that he expects China to purchase “double-digit billions” worth of US agricultural products “over the next three years.” China has not officially confirmed this.
At Boeings, it was announced that China will purchase 200 of the US company’s jets, one of the flagship products that Trump likes to promote abroad. Trump later said that number could rise to 750.
There has been no news of a comprehensive agreement to normalize trade between the world’s two largest superpowers. Although there is a ceasefire in the tariff war that Trump started last year, this war is planned to end in November.
rare earths
Trump’s favorite card in the economic conflict with China is tariffs. Xi are rare earth elements. China restricted exports of critical minerals last year, paralyzing global supply chains and forcing the United States to the negotiating table.
Although China agreed to restore commodity flows in October, when the U.S. and China signed a trade war truce, Greer said Friday that China was still slow to approve export licenses. He said U.S. officials sometimes have to intervene on behalf of affected companies.
Chinese state media did not mention rare earths during the summit, and Trump appears to have left Beijing without a deal on their supply.
Human rights
Trump said Friday that Xi is seriously considering releasing priests detained in China, but that the situation of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is “challenging.”
Lai, a pro-democracy activist, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year. His family appealed personally to Trump for help in securing his release. “I’m sure it will be him and his administration who will release my father,” Lai’s daughter Claire told the Associated Press on Friday.
Additional research by Yu-chen Li
