Trump-Xi Summits Can't Stop U.S.-China Spiral — SkimNews
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- Trump-Xi summit scheduled for September 23 in Washington follows a May Beijing meeting that produced only "constructive strategic stability," not a breakthrough, per a Foreign Affairs analysis.
- May Beijing summit lacked trust-building rituals: Trump was met by Vice President Han Zheng (8th in party hierarchy), not Xi; no joint press conference was held; and Xi stayed "characteristically aloof" despite Trump's praise of him as a "great leader" and declaration it was an "honor" to be his "friend."
- Xi Jinping "equates compromise with weakness" and struggles with the "give-a-little-to-get-a-little logic that is the heart and soul of diplomacy," the essay argues, while Donald Trump's pandering "tech bro" side sits in "uncomfortable tension" with his belligerent side, making effective bargaining "almost impossible."
- Historical breakthroughs succeeded through genuine rapport — Henry Kissinger extolled Zhou Enlai as "one of the two or three most impressive men I have ever met" ahead of Nixon's 1972 visit, and Carter and Deng's 1979 congeniality was aired in the first live overseas satellite broadcast by Chinese state television.
- Clinton's 1998 Beijing visit saw Jiang Zemin order state television to broadcast their joint press conference live — a decision that denied party propagandists the chance to censor — as the two leaders marched into the Great Hall of the People near Tiananmen Square.
- Xi staged a "highly theatrical but substantively thin" visit to Zhongnanhai, the walled compound where top Communist Party leaders live; when Trump asked whether Xi brought other global leaders there, Xi replied, "It's extremely rare."
- The article's bottom line: past summits required leaders who actually respected each other intellectually, and Trump and Xi "simply do not have the symmetries to build the kind of genuine fraternity and trust needed to resolve deep structural problems."
Why it matters: Anyone expecting the September 23 Washington summit to deliver a U.S.-China détente should prepare for crisis management, not structural resolution. The essay argues that as long as Trump and Xi lead their countries, their summits will at best "barely be able to manage the rivalry" and at worst "exacerbate it by letting push come to shove" — meaning trade wars and "chokehold" supply-chain pressure are likely to persist rather than ease.
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