“A very good friend of mine” was how US President Donald Trump described Chinese President Xi Jinping during his election campaign last year.
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Then, in the days after taking office in January, Trump said he “always liked” Xi, and that they “always had a very good relationship”.
This month, Trump again hailed his “very good personal relationship” with Xi, saying that he knew the Chinese leader “probably better than just about anybody in various parts of the world”.
While confirming that he had held talks with Xi, Trump said in an interview on Fox News that he “happen to like [Xi] a lot … I love talking to him”.
As Trump has played up his personal ties with Xi over the past several months, questions have been raised about how effective his brand of diplomacy will be in steering Washington’s relationship with Beijing.
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Trump’s personal approach might have yielded some success in the past with leaders such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, but it might not work with Xi, according to diplomatic observers.