Five priorities for Donald Trump when he meets Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago
North Korea and the South China Sea will jostle for attention alongside climate change, protectionism and censorship when the presidents of the United States and China meet in Mar-a-Lago
When President Donald Trump meets President Xi Jinping ( 習近平 ) for the first time at Mar-a-Lago, the tone and direction for US-China relations will be set for the next few years.
The early summit is urgently needed to inject clarity and stability into this keystone relationship, one that even before Donald Trump entered the White House, was deteriorating into an increasingly Cold War-type rivalry.
Maritime tensions, trade disagreements, clashes over cyber hacking, and disputes over the treatment of foreign media outlets and civil society organisations in China were already fraying the fabric of cooperation and undermining the health of the US-China relationship.
Then, Trump introduced even more uncertainty into the relationship, upending the so-called “constitution” of US-China relations by suggesting he might abandon the “one-China policy” and impose across-the-board tariffs against imports from China. People in both countries were bewildered by where he intended to take America’s relationship with China.
To make matters even more unpredictable, rumours began circulating that the president’s advisers – such as the pugnacious Steven Bannon and Peter Navarro (both of whom have previously speculated over the likelihood of a war between the US and China), family members such as Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner and various cabinet secretaries – were all competing for the president’s ear. With conflicting guidance from above, the thinly staffed State Department has been struggling to prepare an agenda and talking points for the imminent meeting.