Courtesy: Dawn News/Reuters
US President Donald Trump hailed “extremely positive” talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday, in remarks made at an opulent banquet in Beijing attended by top leaders and American business figures, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook.
His trip to Beijing is the first by a US president in nearly a decade, with the grand reception belying a host of unresolved trade and geopolitical tensions between the two countries.
The two leaders rounded off the first full day of a closely watched summit in the Chinese capital with the banquet in a red-carpeted dining room in the lavish Great Hall of the People, abutting Tiananmen Square.
“There are those who say this may be the biggest summit ever,” Trump told Xi after a ceremony that featured an honour guard and throngs of children waving flowers and flags at the Great Hall.
Trump also said he had invited Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to visit the White House on September 24.
Live images streamed before the leaders arrived showed a jovial atmosphere, with several among the top brass of China’s ruling Communist Party seen chatting and smiling with members of Trump’s administration.
Servers in traditional red clothing were seen bustling between colourfully adorned tables, where attendees dined on dishes including Beijing roast duck, pork buns and tiramisu.
Xi said in his remarks at the banquet that China’s advancement could go “hand-in-hand” with “making America great again” — a direct reference to Trump’s signature political slogan.
Trump has not mentioned the sensitive issue of Taiwan since arriving in Beijing on Wednesday evening, ignoring multiple questions from reporters on the subject following his talks with Xi.
Friday’s schedule will involve further talks between the two top leaders, as well as a tea reception, before Trump boards Air Force One for his flight back to Washington.
Thorny issue of Taiwan
Xi told Trump that trade talks were making progress at the start of a two-day summit on Thursday, but cautioned that disagreement over Taiwan could send relations down a dangerous path and even lead to conflict.
Xi’s remarks on Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by Beijing, came in the closed-door meeting of the leaders of the world’s two largest economies that ran more than two hours, China’s foreign ministry said.
Following Xi’s comments, Taipei called China the “sole risk” to regional peace, and insisted that “the US side has repeatedly reaffirmed its clear and firm support”.
But Trump said on Monday he would speak to Xi about US arms sales to Taiwan, a departure from historic US insistence that it will not consult Beijing on the matter.
Adam Ni, editor of newsletter China Neican, told AFP that while such “blunt language” was not uncommon in Chinese foreign policy, it was unusual coming from Xi himself.
“Xi wants to make it very clear… he thinks the Taiwan issue is the potential powder keg between the two superpowers,” Ni added.
China has been “signalling a desire for US compromise on Taiwan in the lead up to the summit,” the National University of Singapore’s Chong Ja Ian told AFP.
Xi’s demand could suggest “they see some opportunity to convince Trump”, he said.
It represented a stark — if not unprecedented — warning during a pomp-filled occasion that was otherwise friendly and relaxed, although the US summary of the talks made no mention of Taiwan.
Instead, it focused on the leaders’ shared desire to reopen the key waterway of the Strait of Hormuz and Xi’s apparent interest in buying American oil to reduce China’s dependence on Middle East supplies.
Washington and Beijing have long clashed on a wide range of issues, including trade, technology and Taiwan. Ties have been complicated further since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran — which has relied on China as its top buyer of oil — on February 28.
Xi also told Trump that preparatory negotiations between US and Chinese economic and trade teams in South Korea on Wednesday had reached “balanced and positive outcomes”, China’s foreign ministry said in a summary.
The talks aimed to maintain a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October, where Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods, and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths.
Earlier, Xi greeted Trump with a red-carpet welcome at the opulent Great Hall of the People, with military band fanfare, a gun salute and a host of schoolchildren jumping and chanting “welcome!”
Seemingly enjoying the ceremony, Trump said that the “relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before”.