Trump praised Xi, described Chin
US President Donald Trump, who returned from a trip to China, described his discussions with President Xi Jinping as a meeting of the leaders of “two great countries”.
Trump landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on the outskirts of the US capital, on Friday evening, claiming to have struck significant trade deals, including China’s purchase of 200 planes from Boeing, a promise of another 750, as well as agreements to benefit the US agricultural sector.
The US President arrived here after a brief refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska.
“These are two great countries. I call it the G-2. It is the G-2. I think it will be remembered as a very important moment in history,” Trump told Fox News in an interview after meeting Xi on Thursday.
The Washington Post reported that Trump’s comments put China on equal footing with the US, exactly what Xi had aimed to achieve with the visit.
“Over two days of meetings here, the carefully orchestrated pageantry and mutual gestures of friendship and respect between the world’s two most powerful men demonstrated a geopolitical dynamic that the Chinese have long desired and the Americans have opposed,” the post said.
Trump told Fox News that relations with Xi are important and suggested China might not take any aggressive steps on Taiwan, at least as long as he is in office.
Trump said, “This is not a takeover. They just don’t want to see this place – we’ll call it a place because nobody knows how to define it – but they don’t want to see it become independent.”
“I don’t think they’ll do anything when I’m here. When I’m not here. Honestly, I think they might do it,” Trump said.
“I want them to calm down. I want China to calm down,” he said.
“We don’t want war and if you keep it that way, I think China will have no problem with it,” he said.
The US President said he has invited Xi to visit Washington in September.
“Xi has done something that Chinese leaders have been working on for decades — bringing an American president to Beijing as an unquestioning peer,” said Julian Gewirtz, who served as China director on the National Security Council under President Joe Biden.
“Xi used the grandeur of this visit to make clear to the world that China and the United States are two major, evenly matched superpowers. There is no turning back now.”
Trump’s friendly statements toward Xi and the Chinese people were being publicized in China’s state-controlled media, sending the message that “we are getting along better with the Americans,” The New York Times quoted John DeLeury, a senior fellow at the Asia Society, as saying.
It’s understandable that Trump wanted to be polite to Xi, but R. Nicholas Burns, ambassador to China during the Biden administration, was quoted in The New York Times as saying that the US president’s aggressive approach “undermines Trump and the United States.”
“Shipping did not hesitate to warn Trump on Taiwan. Trump should not hesitate to speak openly about our concerns as well,” he said.
Trump and Xi are expected to meet at least three times this year.
The US President has invited Xi to the White House in September.
Trump may travel to Shenzhen, China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November. And Xi may come to the G-20 summit in Miami in December.
“This is again a summit that was more heavy on symbolism than substance – focus on managing problems, not solving the problems that exist between the US and China,” said Rush Doshi, former deputy senior director of the National Security Council for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration.
“The way the two leaders talked about the future indicates that this is going to be part of a process that will play out this year,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration.
