As I see it | Will the personal touch give the US an edge in rivalry with China?
- Chinese President Xi Jinping had more contact with other world leaders than his American counterparts until the pandemic struck
- Now Washington may be able to capitalise as the top-down nature of China’s system means face-to-face contact with the leader is irreplaceable
Physical interactions are a key part of diplomacy, especially in the age of superpower rivalry. Former US President George HW Bush once paraphrased Woody Allen, saying: “Ninety per cent of life is just showing up.”
That’s why we are seeing a fierce fight between Beijing and Washington over who is more appealing to the rest of the world, as their rivalry takes the world to the brink of a new cold war.
Since President Xi Jinping took power nearly a decade ago, China has surpassed the US both in terms of the number of presidential overseas trips and world leaders it receives at home.
According to a study by Neil Thomas, a China analyst at the US think tank the Eurasia Group, Xi averaged 14.3 foreign visits and 9.7 countries each year between 2013 and 2019, due largely to multiple visits to the same country, such as Russia.
In comparison, Donald Trump averaged 12.3 overseas trips and eight countries annually while his predecessor Barack Obama made 13.9 visits and visited 7.4 countries on average each year.
Washington was trailing even farther behind Beijing when it came to annual visits by foreign leaders before the coronavirus pandemic broke out in late 2019.