Bo Bennett once said: “Diplomacy is more than saying or doing the right things at the right time, it is avoiding saying or doing the wrong things at any time.”
Perhaps, American President Donald Trump has realised this. He made an attempt to break the tradition upon his arrival in Asia for a 12-day five-nation trip on November 5. He continued to do so even in China. President Trump surprised the global community by showering praises on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on November 9. The two leaders held talks in the Chinese capital for almost two hours. Although they concentrated mainly on bilateral trade ties, Trump and Xi also exchanged views on various important regional and global issues.
Later, the American president congratulated the Asian giant for achieving tremendous success in global trade and for maintaining a steady economic growth. In fact, Trump blamed his predecessors for America’s widening trade deficit with China, saying that he didn’t blame the leadership in Beijing for ‘taking advantage’ of Washington. In the presence of President Xi, the visiting leader told the media: “It’s a very good chemistry between the two of us, believe me. After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens. I give China great credit. In actuality, I blame past (US) administrations for allowing this out-of-control trade deficit to take place and to grow.”

No one expected such a striking change of tone from the US president, who had portrayed China as an economic bogeyman throughout last year’s election campaign. Before addressing a joint press conference with Xi, Trump also signed bilateral corporate deals with a face value totalling USD 250 billion (that too during his first trip to China).
Just a year after criticising Beijing and its trade policy, the US president tried to explain that his ‘thought’ has changed. ‘Business tycoon’ Trump has realised that American trade policies actually allowed the Asian powerhouse to take advantage. So, there is no point in finding error in it.
The Great Hall of the People is located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. During the recently-held 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party at this Hall, the president unveiled soaring ambition of making China the centre of the world and party members allowed him to enjoy ‘absolute’ power. The ‘powerful’ Xi welcomed President Trump’s view on bilateral trade ties, saying: “The broad Pacific Ocean is vast enough to embrace both China and the US. We will never close our doors. They will only open wider and wider. Co-operation is the only viable choice.”

The two leaders also discussed the most sensitive ‘North Korea crisis’. Trump thanked President Xi for Beijing’s efforts to restrict its trading and financial relationships with Pyongyang, but implied Beijing could do more, telling the local media: “China can fix this (North Korea) problem easily and quickly. I know one thing about your president, if he works on it hard it will happen. There’s no doubt about it.” However, Xi did not respond to Trump’s challenges directly. He also offered no hint that China would change track on North Korea, with which it had fought side-by-side in the 1950-53 Korean War against the US-led forces.
Trump is famous for dealing with the media in a different way and Xi believes in imposing sanctions on the press. The two performed equally well during the joint press conference, as they were not interested in taking questions from journalists. Later, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that they didn’t take any questions at the request of the Chinese (which the US framed as unprecedented and detrimental to press freedoms).

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das