Beijing visit is central to Trump’s Asia tour, but diplomacy dictates Japan, South Korea must come first
US leader will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during his stay in Beijing from November 8-10, after trips to ‘allied’ nations
US President Donald Trump will begin his five-nation Asia tour next month in Japan followed by a stop in South Korea, the White House said on Tuesday, a clear sign that Washington plans to uphold the diplomatic protocol of prioritising “allied” nations.
However, putting the United States’ main Asian allies Japan and South Korea ahead of China was mostly symbolic, a diplomatic observer said.
“Visiting Japan before China is a kind of an assurance to [the United States’] allies,” Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, a research associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, said.
“The sequence has symbolic importance. It reflects that Japan is and will remain important to the US.”
Nonetheless, Trump will spend as much time in China – three days – as he will in Japan. His visit to Beijing and meeting with President Xi Jinping signal that Washington attaches equal importance to both nations.