You could be forgiven, reading and watching the Chinese press this week, for entirely missing U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing.
On Wednesday, the day that Trump arrived, the front page of the state-run English-language newspaper China Daily was dominated by Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with the president of Tajikistan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper, the People’s Daily, relegated commentary on the U.S. leader’s trip to Page 3.
You could be forgiven, reading and watching the Chinese press this week, for entirely missing U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing.
On Wednesday, the day that Trump arrived, the front page of the state-run English-language newspaper China Daily was dominated by Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with the president of Tajikistan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper, the People’s Daily, relegated commentary on the U.S. leader’s trip to Page 3.
Xinwen Lianbo, the most watched nightly news broadcast in China, announced the visit on Monday in 12 seconds of coverage. For comparison, that was followed by a nearly six-minute segment titled “The Integrated Development of the Yangtze River Delta Continues to Achieve New Breakthroughs.” The Trump-Xi meeting got a whole two and a half minutes on Wednesday—in 13th place in the broadcast.
As it turned out, the lack of dramatics on the Chinese side was appropriate. Trump’s visit was a snoozefest. Xi stuck to political banalities, speaking about familiar red lines: Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China’s “path and system,” and China’s “development right,” referring to its ability to move up the global economic ladder without being pushed down by Washington.
The Chinese leader also returned to favorite topics. The bilateral relationship must be one of stability, not competition. It must avoid the Thucydides Trap of conflict between an established and a rising power. Together, the United States and China must always be twirling, twirling, twirling toward the future.
Trump and Xi seemed to agree to little of substance, save some minor concessions over trade, such as the licensing of U.S. slaughterhouses for export to China. Even that, though, appeared to be quickly reversed. (I wouldn’t read this apparent reversal as a sign of sudden disfavor but rather of rapid lobbying by Chinese agricultural interests that have already sought government protection.)
Expected deals, such as China’s promise to buy Boeing jets, fell short of what was rumored ahead of the meeting, disappointing markets. There was no sign of any movement—or even real discussion—on Iran, Taiwan, Japan, or other areas of geopolitical contention. Trump said Xi had “strongly” promised not to supply Iran with weapons; that means nothing, since any Chinese military aid to Tehran is already under the table.
Yet previous U.S. presidential visits were met with far more fanfare in China’s tightly controlled media, even when little of consequence emerged. Why was Beijing so muted this time around? One reason is unpredictability. Other U.S. presidents visiting China have stuck to an agreed-on agenda and have been controlled and careful in their speech. No one expects this from Trump.
With previous visitors, Chinese media could prepare in advance of the trip, writing about it beforehand without risking it blowing up in their faces if things went wrong. This time, no newspaper editor or media censor wanted to cast Trump’s visit in positive terms only to be accused of “serious political mistakes” after an explosion from the U.S. leader.
During these other presidential visits, Chinese leaders also sought validation through recognition from Washington. The United States was recognized as the global superpower, and China gained status in the eyes of its own citizens by portraying itself as a peer and a gracious host. Restaurants visited by U.S. presidents, and even by lesser dignitaries, became hot spots—something that only Taiwanese American tech mogul Jensen Huang, one of the CEOs in Trump’s entourage, managed this time.
Visits by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama to China were the subject of plentiful media coverage and strong public interest, as was Trump’s first trip in 2017. This time, though, even social media users seemed uninterested, save for sardonic commentary over U.S. failure in the Iran war and some praise for Trump’s submissive and mannered approach. (Chinese social media was even more censored than usual, as is common during important state visits.)
China no longer needs that validation from the United States. Its global primacy is more than sufficiently established—not just as a manufacturing superpower but also as a technological and scientific giant. Meanwhile, U.S. global leadership looks shakier than ever under an administration simultaneously isolationist, hostile to allies, and struggling militarily, with even long-term partners balancing against Washington by turning to Beijing.
Indeed, throughout the visit it was Trump who seemed to be looking for validation—and not on a national level but a personal one. The U.S. president praised Xi in fulsome terms, telling Fox News, “If you went to Hollywood and you looked for a leader of China to play a role in a movie … you couldn’t find a guy like him, even his physical features.”
Unlike some other recipients of unexpected praise from Trump, Xi is not known for his charisma. Xi, the son of one of the founders of the People’s Republic of China, was allowed to ascend to the top job, despite the party elders’ general wariness of “princelings,” in part because they mistakenly saw him as a solid CCP man who lacked the dangerous personal attraction of fellow princeling Bo Xilai.
Trump has a well-known fondness for strongmen and has often praised China’s dictatorship, but this time, he seemed to need something more particular from Xi. Bizarrely, in a Truth Social post, Trump said Xi had “elegantly” referred to the United States as “perhaps being a declining nation”—something not mentioned in the Chinese readouts of the meeting. It’s unclear if Trump was referring to previous or imagined comments, but either way, he suggested that Xi must have meant only the Biden administration because now the United States was now “the hottest Nation anywhere in the world.”
Trump’s obsequiousness may reflect a genuine shift in power and perception between the United States and China. But it seems more a case of psychology than geopolitics—another reflection of the U.S. president’s own growing insecurities as his popularity slumps and he becomes increasingly defensive over his war in Iran.
Either way, the relative stability of the U.S.-China relationship seems secure for now—largely because neither power, mired in disputes elsewhere and with stagnant economies at home, has the appetite for a fight.
