Donald Trump and Xi Jinping represent two radically different ways of exercising power. The American president measures his relationship with the world in immediate effects and in the theatricalization of strength, not hiding the aspirations for the entire geopolitical board to move at the pace of his will. The Chinese president, in contrast, is much colder. He leaves nothing to chance. Every gesture, every silence, is calculated. He is a long-distance runner who never gives in to the urgency of the moment but always looks long-term, aware that he has been crowned as the lifelong president of a very patient regime.
The two most powerful men on the planet have faced each other this Thursday for the first time since Trump's return to the White House. The neutral setting chosen was an airbase near Busan, the second largest city in South Korea.
Trump (79 years old), who always relies on the chemistry between leaders to unlock negotiations, has never spared praise in public for his Chinese counterpart. What Xi (72 years old) thinks of the Republican is unfathomable. The Chinese leader has not granted an interview in over 10 years. Nor does he hold press conferences. In his proclamations, there is no room for the impulsiveness displayed by his American counterpart.
While the US president has a loose tongue, especially daily in front of the cameras, the Chinese supreme leader only delivers solemn speeches, often repetitive in ideas, projected in a loop on the propaganda channels of his country, where no one is allowed to question his authority. While one uses his own social network, Truth Social, as a personal megaphone, the other has the People's Daily, the newspaper that serves as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
During Trump's first term (2017-2021), despite the apparent good chemistry and affectionate words during their encounters, both led their countries into a strategic confrontation of far-reaching consequences. They met in April 2017, at Trump's luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. The Republican did not want to receive his guest in an institutional setting like the White House, but within his personal empire.
Trump went as far as to say that Xi was "probably the most powerful leader China has had in a hundred years" and that there was "great chemistry" between them. For a long time, the friendly tone persisted, with Trump publicly describing their exchanges as "love letters." But the bromance lasted until the American launched his trade war against China in 2018, accusing it of benefiting from intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, and a chronic trade deficit. Beijing interpreted this offensive as an attempt by Washington to curb China's development, so it did not back down and engaged in a tit-for-tat game with a continuous exchange of tariff blows.
Both leaders tried to redirect their relationship at several summits, especially at the G-20 in Osaka in 2019. But the pandemic led to a broader rupture, with Trump making continuous references to the "Chinese virus" and fueling the theory that Covid was created in a Wuhan laboratory. This was compounded by his crusade against the expansion of the Chinese giant Huawei's 5G network. Then came Democrat Joe Biden to the White House, intensifying a tougher rivalry with China that echoed a new Cold War.
Relations between the world's two largest economies were at a critical point when Trump assumed the presidency for the second time. The American's new global trade war did not help ease tensions. Once again, China held its ground and resumed the old tit-for-tat game. If one blocked the supply of chips to suppress its rival's technological development, the other responded by blocking the essential minerals needed to manufacture these chips. If one made a precise tariff cut, the other counterattacked in the same way.
To extinguish many fires between the two superpowers, the leaders, after speaking three times by phone this year, agreed to meet face-to-face in South Korea, taking advantage of both being invited to a regional summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. Trump arrives emboldened after being courted on his previous stops on the Asian tour, in Malaysia and Japan. In the former, he could add another medal to his presentation as a global peacemaker after presiding over a peace ceremony between Thailand and Cambodia, two neighbors who had a military clash on their border in the summer.
"This is one of the eight wars my administration has ended in just eight months," boasted Trump. The American has shown that his country continues to cling to hegemony as the main arbiter of global conflicts, while China has tried to enhance its role as a mediator on various fronts, but with virtually no results except when it managed to reconcile Iran and Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago. In both Ukraine and Gaza, Beijing diplomats argued that they could be useful in achieving peace agreements. But it all remained in good (or simulated) intentions.
In the Ukraine war, Xi Jinping is tied to a strategic alliance with the invader Vladimir Putin. A "limitless friendship," as both autocrats have described it, which Trump unsuccessfully tried to at least crack with his initial approach to the Russian leader.
Another point that has been away from the frenetic media spotlight for some time is Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory. Trump has publicly stated that Xi committed to not invading Taiwan "as long as he was president." What the Republican has not addressed, unlike his predecessor, is whether he will militarily defend Taipei in the event of a Chinese army attack.