Statements issued by China and the United States after their summit on Thursday revealed stark contrasts in each side’s priorities.
Washington focused on trade, fentanyl and Iran, while Beijing emphasised Taiwan, stabilising bilateral ties and Trump’s compliments about President Xi Jinping.
Trump’s state visit to China marks the first trip to the country by a US president in nine years and it began in the morning with more than two hours of talks between Xi and his US counterpart Donald Trump in the Chinese capital.
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The Chinese statement about the meeting highlighted an agreement between the leaders that the two countries should have a “constructive strategic stable relationship”, a framing that should guide relations for the “next three years and beyond”.
Trump’s term in office runs for a further three years.
Beijing’s statement also raised the question of whether the US and China could establish a new paradigm for major-power relations and transcend the “Thucydides Trap”, the theory that a rising power and an established hegemon are destined for war. These were questions “posed by history, the world and the people”, it said.