(May 15): Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed the results of his meetings with US President Donald Trump and touted an agreement on a new relationship for their countries, projecting optimism despite unresolved tensions and limited deals announced so far.
“This visit is a historic and landmark visit. Thus far, we have established a new bilateral relationship — a constructive strategic stable relationship — which constitutes a milestone event,” Xi said while hosting Trump in Zhongnanhai, the secretive headquarters of the ruling Communist Party and residence of its top leaders. “We have achieved many cooperative outcomes.”
The two countries reached an “important consensus” on maintaining stable economic and trade relations while expanding cooperation in various fields, according to a readout published on Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency before Trump departed on Air Force One. Neither side have released details of their commercial deals, which may be announced in the coming days.
The meeting follows a day of warm welcome and highly choreographed pageantry in the Chinese capital. In talks lasting about two and a half hours on Thursday, the two presidents struck a positive tone on US-China relations but also discussed contentious issues ranging from trade to Taiwan to the Iran war.
Zhongnanhai offers a prestigious setting for the meeting and represents a gesture of hospitality. Only a handful of US leaders have been inside the heavily guarded complex next to the Forbidden City. Richard Nixon, the first American president to visit China, met chairman Mao Zedong there during his groundbreaking trip in 1972, while George W Bush visited the walled compound twice, in 2002 and 2008. Former president Barack Obama visited in 2014.
Xi and Trump walked and talked, stopping occasionally to admire the greenery and trees. Xi spoke about the history of the compound through a translator and offered to send seeds for roses that the US president praised.
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“These are the most beautiful roses anyone has ever seen,” Trump said.
Beneath the friendliness on display, however, the relationship between the world’s two largest economies remains strained by a range of thorny topics.
In their first meeting the day before, Xi delivered his starkest warning yet on Taiwan to an American president, saying mishandling of the issue could lead to “clashes” between the superpowers.
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Trump told Fox News in an interview that Xi offered to help on Iran — something China has not explicitly confirmed. A White House readout of their meeting said the two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must be open to support the free flow of energy.
China agreed to buy 200 Boeing Co planes, Trump said in the interview, which fell short of the 500 737 Max and additional wide-body aircraft Chinese airlines were expected to buy at the upper extreme of a landmark deal.
The US and China are also discussing a mechanism for fast-tracking some Chinese investment deals, along with a reduction in tariffs on a swath of non-critical goods, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday in Beijing.
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