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Laura Zhou

Beijing’s Forbidden City was more than just an opulent backdrop for US President Donald Trump’s first day in China.
One of the main halls used to stage a set piece on Trump’s tour of the former imperial palace was weighted with meaning and chosen to underscore cooperation between the two countries.
As part of their higher-than-usual welcome to the Chinese capital, Trump and his wife, Melania, sipped tea and had dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in the World Heritage Site on Wednesday.

The couples took tea in the Bao Yun Lou, or Hall of Embodied Treasures, a Western-style imperial building erected in 1915 to store treasures from other imperial residences outside Beijing.
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It was built with funds remitted by the US government under then president Theodore Roosevelt.


China’s Qing dynasty government had been forced to pay compensation to eight nations, including the United States, over the Boxer rebellion, an anti-foreigner movement from 1899 to 1901.

But the US agreed to cancel the debt and the Chinese government used some of the money to build the hall. The rest was used to create a scholarship for Chinese students studying in the US and to build Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University.

Renmin University international relations professor Jin Canrong said having tea in the building “could send a strong signal to the US government that cooperation instead of antagonism is needed between the two countries”.
Donald Trump’s granddaughter plays diplomat once more as she sings for ‘Grandpa’ Xi Jinping
The two couples later sat down for dinner in the Jianfu Palace, a structure that was destroyed in a fire in 1923 along with all of its treasures before rebuilding got under way in 1999 with the help of a Hong Kong-based cultural foundation.

The Jianfu Palace has no obvious historical links with the United States but the meal was the first time a foreign head of state had dined with a Chinese president in the Forbidden City since 1949.


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The dinner also appeared to run overtime.
At the start of talks with Xi on Thursday, Trump said the dinner was expected to last for about 20 or 25 minutes but continued for much longer.
“Because I was travelling and you were so nice and you said, ‘we’ll just do a quick dinner’,” the US president said, addressing Xi.
“And I think it [had to have lasted] at least two hours and we enjoyed every minute of it.”






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Donald Trump

The meaning behind Donald Trump’s cup of tea in a Forbidden City treasure hall

The Forbidden City’s Hall of Embodied Treasures was chosen for the two presidents and their wives to have tea. Photo: XInhua

Bao Yun Lou. Undated Handout.

epa06315521 A picture released by Xinhua News Agency shows US President Donald J. Trump (2-L), first lady Melania Trump (L), Chinese President Xi Jinping (2-R) and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, 08 November 2017. US President Donald J. Trump is visiting China from 08 to 10 November as part of his 12-day tour of Asia. EPA-EFE/XINHUA/XIE HUANCHI EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

TO GO WITH STORY TITLED FALL BOOKS--FILE--Theodore Roosevelt campaigns for president in this 1904 file photo. Roosevelt is the subject of Edmund Morris' long-awaited biography, "Theodore Rex," the sequel, due in book stores in fall 2001, to his award-winning "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt." (AP Photo/ho)

Jianfu Palace. Undated Handout.

Donald Trump tweets from Beijing about his ‘unforgettable afternoon’ with Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan

US President Donald Trump tweeted late on Wednesday about the ‘unforgettable afternoon’ he and his wife spent with China’s President Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

Human rights and playing the crowds off the agenda for Trump in China

Unlike his predecessors, the US president has not touched on sensitive rights issues and has not spoken to ordinary Chinese in public forums

PEK13:CHINA-CLINTON:BEIJING,CHINA,29JUN98 - U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary wave goodbye to the students of Peking University after a visit to the campus June 29. In an earlier address to students, Clinton commented on a wide range of issues, including human rights, and then took questions. ptb/Photo by Bobby Yip REUTERS

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump talks to opera performers at the Forbidden City in Beijing on November 8, 2017. US President Donald Trump toured the Forbidden City with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on November 8 as he began the crucial leg of an Asian tour intended to build a global front against North Korea's nuclear threats. / AFP PHOTO / Jim WATSON

(091116) -- SHANGHAI, Nov. 16, 2009 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chinese students after having a dialogue with Chinese youth at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum during his four-day state visit to China, Nov. 16, 2009. (Xinhua/Zhang Ming) (yy)

Traditional Chinese opera was on the agenda for US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping, but human rights issues were not. Photo: Reuters

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China

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Xi’s dinner with the US president in the former imperial palace was much more than a meal


Xi Jinping

US-China relations

The meaning behind Donald Trump’s cup of tea in a Forbidden City treasure hall

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Xi’s dinner with the US president in the former imperial palace was much more than a meal

Xi’s dinner with the US president in the former imperial palace was much more than a meal