The Room Where it Happened: Xi Jinping flattered Donald Trump over grilled steak, John Bolton says in White House memoir

Chinese leader began by telling Trump ‘how wonderful he was, laying it on thick’, former US national security adviser says in tell-all book

Trump supported Xi’s plans to build mass detainment centres for ethnic Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, he says

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Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump were gushing in their praise for one another when they met in Argentina, John Bolton says in his book. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:00pm, 18 Jun 2020Updated: 8:21pm, 18 Jun 2020

Over a dinner of grilled sirloin steak in Buenos Aires, Chinese President Xi Jinping, reading from his notes, was full of praise for US President Donald Trump. The American leader improvised his response, but nodded when Xi suggested the US had too many elections.

It was a chummy scene at the banqueting table as the leaders of the world’s two largest economies sat down for trade negotiations on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina in December 2018, according to a new account by former US national security adviser John Bolton, who was ousted from the Trump administration late last year.

“At dinner, Xi began by telling Trump how wonderful he was, laying it on thick,” Bolton wrote in an excerpt of his upcoming book, The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir, published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

“Xi read steadily through note cards, doubtless all of it hashed out arduously in advance. Trump ad-libbed, with no one on the US side knowing what he would say from one minute to the next.”

The high-profile meeting to discuss trade disputes – which would later escalate into a trade war that has yet to be resolved – saw Trump agreeing to reduce all US tariffs if China bought more American agricultural products “to help with the crucial farm-state vote”, Bolton wrote.

Xi at one point told Trump he wanted to work with him for six more years, suggesting he was hopeful the former real estate tycoon would be re-elected in 2020, according to the excerpt. When Trump said his son-in-law Jared Kushner – who had worked previously with Chinese investors and established backchannels with China on trade – would be involved in follow-up trade discussions, “all the Chinese perked up and smiled”.