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
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.”
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”.
Beijing and Washington have seen their strategic rivalry intensify in recent months, with the Trump administration embracing a more hawkish stance against China and Xi ahead of the US presidential election in November.
While the White House notably confronted Beijing on trade, technology and ideology during Trump’s first term, the president was criticised for comments in January that he and Xi “love each other”.
Trump also initially lauded Xi’s response to the coronavirus outbreak – in February he said Beijing was “doing a very professional job” – before lashing out and blaming China for allowing it to spread around the globe in a “mass worldwide killing”.
Trump said in tweets on Thursday that Bolton’s book was “made up of lies and fake stories”, describing his former national security adviser as “a disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war”.
It was also on Twitter that Trump announced he had fired Bolton – a man known for his hawkish foreign policy approach – in September last year. Bolton, who took the role in April 2018, said he had offered to resign.
In his book, Bolton wrote that when Xi and Trump met in June 2019 at the G20 summit in Osaka, Xi agreed to restart stalled trade negotiations, with discussions on buying US farm products a priority.
In response, Trump reportedly proclaimed: “You’re the greatest Chinese leader in 300 years!” Minutes later, he changed that to “the greatest leader in Chinese history”, Bolton wrote.
The US and Taiwan have significantly strengthened ties under Trump’s administration, including legislation aimed at bolstering Taiwan’s global alliances from Beijing’s pressure and arms sales of F-16 fighter jets and submarine-launched torpedoes.
“One of Trump’s favourite comparisons was to point to the tip of one of his Sharpies and say, ‘This is Taiwan’, then point to the historic Resolute desk in the Oval Office and say, ‘This is China’,” Bolton wrote.
“So much for American commitments and obligations to another democratic ally.”
