WASHINGTON — Chinese President Xi Jinping boarded his flight home from Washington on the 25th, closing a three-day state visit to the United States. Aside from a two-month extension of the pause on steep tariffs between the two countries, pushing the deadline from Nov. 10 to Jan. 10 next year, no major deliverables have emerged so far. Details are expected to be released early next week.
Major foreign media reported that President Donald Trump met with Xi four times over the three days. One sign of the lavish treatment was Trump's hour-long wait at the airport for Xi's arrival. At Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Xi landed on the 23rd, Trump waited alongside first lady Melania Trump and greeted Xi and his wife in person.
Even Republicans Say U.S. Must Make Clear Who Is Friend and Who Is Foe
Trump also had a red carpet rolled out each time Xi appeared. At the dinner on the 24th, the room was decorated entirely in red, a color of tradition in China. The two toured the interior of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, together, and Trump showed his familiarity with Xi by joking and patting his arm while walking him around the White House grounds. Bloomberg noted that Trump made no public mention of human rights, a staple topic at past U.S.-China summits.
That has drawn complaints within the Republican Party. Sen. John Curtis of Utah urged Trump to raise China's military support for Iran directly with Xi and to make clear that the United States is disappointed and that such conduct carries consequences. He stressed that Washington must make clear who its friends and enemies are. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has clashed with Trump and announced he will not seek reelection, criticized what he called a worrying trend of spending more time with dictators and less time with democratic leaders.
With Weak Spots on Iran and Rare Earths, Washington Lacks Leverage Over Beijing
Behind Trump's approach is the absence of any effective card to play against China. With gasoline and diesel prices surging ahead of the midterm elections, Trump is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz quickly, and that requires cooperation from China, Iran's main backer. David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, said in a Fox News interview that Trump told Xi support for Iran was unacceptable and that the Chinese side asserted it was doing no such thing.
China's economy is also weak, and Washington could apply pressure through steep tariffs, but Beijing would almost certainly retaliate with tariffs of its own. With the midterms imminent, a further rise in tariffs could be a serious blow to Trump. Above all, rare earths are the Achilles' heel. With China effectively controlling the global rare earth market, Trump has few options for pressuring Beijing. Adam Farrar of Bloomberg Economics said most countries, including the United States, will remain dependent on China for rare earth supplies even after 2030. In other words, the dominance China built over decades will not be broken overnight.
As a result, Trump appears to have focused on maintaining the status quo with China while providing voters with a political spectacle ahead of the midterms. Analysts say that by bringing Xi onto home turf, he is making the case to Americans that the United States has returned as a great power rather than the declining nation it was under the Biden administration. A former senior U.S. government official told reporters before the talks that the event was closer to a spectacle than a summit and was designed to draw public attention.
A Bolder Xi Makes First Public Demand That Washington "Oppose Taiwan Independence"
What stands out is that Xi exploited those openings. A clear example was his blunt demand that Trump oppose Taiwan independence. According to Xinhua, Xi told Trump to his face that he hoped Washington would hold to what he called the correct position of opposing Taiwan independence. The U.S. government has traditionally used the phrase that it does not support Taiwan independence, making Xi's request that Washington oppose it a bold step. It goes a step beyond the call for careful handling of the Taiwan issue at the U.S.-China summit in May, and marks the first time Beijing has publicly demanded a change in the U.S. wording.
Mark Montgomery, a retired Navy admiral, said at an event that he is not 100% certain Trump knows he is holding a weak hand, but that he is 100% certain Xi knows Trump's hand is weak.
