The world’s two most powerful men met, exchanged compliments, and agreed to disagree on just about everything, an outcome that is actually good news.
The pomp and circumstance staged for US President Donald Trump in Beijing was over the top, but so was Trump’s flattery in return. On their agenda was trade, tech, Tehran, and Taiwan. Talks were held behind closed doors, and Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly suggested that the two should be “partners not rivals,” then announced that Taiwan was off limits. Trump said China offered to help stop the Iran war, but that’s questionable. And the most dramatic development was that in the middle of their summit, Vladimir Putin unleashed his worst attack on Ukrainian civilians.
The timing of Putin’s latest massacre of innocent people was designed to try to assert Russia’s importance. But the dictatorship sinks into oblivion, along with its military and economy. It didn’t move the dial, and overall, the bilateral summit was mostly “jaw-jaw” or talk. However, as Winston Churchill once pointed out: “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.”
Putin’s aerial terrorism was a shocking tactical intrusion. His next move will occur on May 20, when he heads to Beijing for his own summit with Xi, scheduled to last for only two days. He fancies himself a hegemon, but heads a peanut-size nation, so there will be no parade or special fanfare for him in Beijing. He will be hosted for only two reasons: China has profited from the Ukraine war by getting cheap Russian oil and by exporting components at inflated prices to Russia for the war effort. Then there’s the matter of China’s whopping debt to Russia worth billions, an IOU that will be repaid one day in resources, Manchuria, and large chunks of Siberia.
The contrast between Xi and his two “partners” is instructive: Xi talked to Trump about being “partners, not rivals.” But years ago, on Feb. 4, 2022, Putin and Xi declared that they were “friends without limits.” The US-China relationship continues and is about mutual self-interest and a commitment to peace and prosperity. But Putin never told Xi when they made their pledge in 2022 that he was about to invade Ukraine, and did just days later. That treachery put Xi in an awkward position geopolitically and generated enormous annoyance and anger in Beijing. Now there are “limits” to that “friendship.”
Of course, the two dictatorships continue to do business, and China has told Trump that it does not sell weapons to Russia directly. However, its companies have been caught exporting dual-use technology and materials that enable Russia’s military production, and have been slapped with American sanctions. Trump said the two discussed trying to end the Ukraine war. Then, on May 9, Putin announced that the “war was coming to an end,” and during the superpower summit on May 14 and 15, he unleashed his biggest attack. Trump responded to the attacks by stating that they “could delay peace efforts” and called the situation “a shame.” When asked about his and Xi’s response to these attacks, Trump added, “It’s one [issue] that we’d like to see settled,” said Trump. “Until last night, it was looking good, but they [Ukraine] took a big hit.”
Clearly, the three-day summit made no progress concerning any of the wars underway, and here’s a summary of talks concerning the other issues:
Taiwan:Xi warned Trump that Taiwan was his key issue and to be careful concerning US policy and military support for the island. A $14-billion arms package for Taiwan was approved by Congress in January, but Trump has held up the sale for months, which some hardline Republicans worry may mean he will shift to appease Beijing. If he does, that would be illegal.
Tehran: China is Iran’s biggest trading partner, which gives it leverage over the regime. Trump said he’s losing patience with Iran, but said he didn’t ask for “any favors” from Xi concerning Iran because he doesn’t want to be asked for favors in return. However, he said Xi told him that China would not provide military equipment to Tehran in the future and that Xi was willing to help broker peace there. Both leaders agreed that the Strait of Hormuz “must remain open” and be free of tolls or future militarization. Both agree that Iran should never have nuclear weapons (However, the readout of talks released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry made no mention of either Iran or the Strait of Hormuz.)
But if China helps with Iran, it will want something in return from Trump, such as backing off on support for Taiwan. But if he renegs, there will be a showdown with Congress.
Trade:The US wants China to open its doors to more American investment, but also wants guardrails against state interference. China also wants more access to the US, and discussions have been ongoing. After this summit, Trump claimed that “fantastic trade deals, good for both countries,” were struck. But full details were not disclosed, only that China would buy at least 200 Boeing jets, and possibly another 750. Trump added that China would buy billions of dollars’ worth of American soybeans plus other agricultural commodities – a claim that Chinese authorities did not corroborate. Another major concern is the extension of the trade truce due to expire in November, but no agreements were announced, only that Xi would come to the United States in the fall for the next summit. “Surprisingly, Trump told reporters that he and Xi did not discuss tariffs at all,” reported the BBC.
Technology:Trump was flanked by highly placed American CEOs and Silicon Valley billionaires who wanted safeguards to prevent the Chinese from stealing their artificial intelligence technologies. Washington has accused China of “industrial scale” theft of US technologies and demanded that firms be held accountable. China called the accusations “baseless.” In February, US AI developer Anthropic accused three Chinese firms, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax, of intellectual property theft. OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT) accused China’s DeepSeek of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” This issue is a high priority for the US, and thus far, it has deployed export controls, law enforcement, and trade restrictions to protect its domestic industry. But it continues. Officials and market players describe this as a systematic, state-led assault on US technology.
In conclusion, neither country came away from the summit with clear-cut wins or losses in terms of trade, tech, Taiwan, or Tehran. However, Trump broached the topic of human rights, notably the incarceration of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai and others, but without success. In summary, as one commentator described it aptly, the US and China were able to attain “a stabilized stalemate” on all fronts.
Reprinted from dianefrancis@substack.com – Diane Francis on America and the World.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.