Avoid beer and skip the handshake: how Xi should handle first Trump meeting
Experts warn that social contact at summits with people outside your own culture can be a diplomatic minefield for nations’ leaders
When President Xi Jinping meets his US counterpart Donald Trump next week, tea rather than beer might be the best way to oil the wheels of the diplomatic relationship.
Xi was quick to cross the cultural divide and share an ale with former British prime minister David Cameron in 2015 but that tactic will not work for Trump, a teetotaller since the death of his brother from an alcohol-related illness in 1981 at the age of 43.
Leow Chee Seng, a professor of non-verbal communication and behaviour at the Human Behaviour Academy in Malaysia, said social contact with people outside your own culture can be something of a diplomatic minefield for leaders.
Leow said Xi should offer tea as a gift and the two leaders should minimise the risk of social gaffes by limiting their social activity.
That’s because observers will be closely watching how the two “tough” leaders interact.
“It’ll be very interesting to see the chemistry between Xi and Trump in their meetings rather than any political agreements made,” said Qiao Mu, an associate professor of media studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University.