In a high-voltage diplomatic meeting in the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, the president of China, Xi Jinping, received this Thursday his American counterpart, Donald Trump, in a meeting marked by direct warnings about territorial sovereignty (read Taiwan) and a call for global economic stability between two giants embroiled in successive trade wars in the last decade.
The two leaders have shown obvious harmony. Trump likes the way the Chinese work and, in the 2016 election campaign, he made them one of his axes. Power, authoritarianism, effectiveness. The communist regime has taken 10,000 soldiers to the streets to entertain its guest and, among red and gold, the Republican has been comfortable, with the suit of a well-dressed high statesman.
But this is like the meme, “yes, but…”, and after the splendor have come the wake-up calls. Xi has been blunt in pointing out that Taiwan constitutes “the most important issue” in the bilateral relationship. According to Chinese state media, the president warned in the more than two hours of meeting with the American that a “mismanagement” of this issue could lead both powers to a “clash” or “even to conflict”, placing the relationship in a “very dangerous” scenario.
For Beijing, “Taiwanese independence” is incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait. Xi stressed that maintaining stability in the area must be the “greatest common denominator” between Beijing and Washington. While China considers the island an inalienable province, the US continues to be Taipei’s main arms supplier, despite not maintaining official diplomatic ties.
On the economic level, and with the shadow of the tariff tensions of recent years, Xi recalled one of his favorite phrases: that “there are no winners in a trade war.” The Chinese leader insisted that mutual benefit is the essence of the ties between both nations and that, in the face of inevitable friction, the “only correct option” is consultations based on equality.
Xi positively valued the progress made on Wednesday in Seoul by the economic teams – led by Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent -, describing them as “good news” for the world. This meeting in Beijing takes place after the truce agreed last October in Busan (South Korea), although key disputes persist over technology, rare earths and access to the Chinese market.
Trump, despite everything, has praised his Chinese counterpart as a “friend” and also a “great leader” at the beginning of his official visit. It remains to be seen if he maintains that flattering line, now that Xi has put his cards on the table.
The agenda and colleagues
Trump landed in the Chinese capital accompanied by a delegation that underlines the economic weight of the visit. Traveling alongside the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, were figures such as Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Jensen Huang (Nvidia) and executives from giants such as Boeing, BlackRock, Meta and Goldman Sachs.
The American president maintains a busy agenda that will conclude this Friday, including state dinners and events at emblematic places such as the Temple of Heaven. This is his second official visit to China, after the one carried out in 2017, and seeks to define the course of the strategic competition between the two largest economies in the world in a context of high global uncertainty.
