Can China’s chefs charm Donald Trump like they did with Henry Kissinger in 1971?
The US president will be served the finest foods China has to offer on Thursday evening, but will any of it have the ‘Peking duck effect’
It is unlikely that Donald Trump was aware of the diplomatic row his dinner in Seoul on Tuesday evening caused between Japan and South Korea, but Chinese officials, and chefs, are not expected to take any chances when the US president sits down for a banquet in Beijing on Thursday.
The problem in Seoul was down to the fact that the prawns served to Trump and his wife Melania as part of a four-course dinner at the presidential Blue House had been caught near a disputed island claimed both by South Korea and Japan.
The Seoul-controlled island – called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan – is at the heart of a decades-long territorial dispute and diplomatic row between the two countries.
A Japanese government spokesman said it was important to avoid any actions that would have a negative impact on relations between Tokyo, Seoul and Washington. South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office responded by saying the menu was prepared to convey the formality of a state visit and to represent the “solid alliance” of South Korea-US relations.
