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Trump Flinches Beside Xi Jinping
Trade talks may extend a fragile truce as Beijing weighs Taiwan and Iran leverage, while Trump faces weak approval ratings at home.
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for a high-stakes summit at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday. During the red-carpet ceremony, a pair of supersonic B-1 bombers flew overhead, producing an overpowering roar.
The Chinese are looking past Trump toward what comes next in the United States, said Ryan Hass, former director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the National Security Council. They view the summit as a means "to sustain and extend this period of fragile calm."
Beijing may condition substantive results on Trump maintaining a $14 billion arms sale delay to Taiwan imposed in May. The administration has also refused to pursue Chinese banks facilitating oil trade with Iran, a lifeline for the Iranian economy.
Youth unemployment levels hover around 20% in China while demographic challenges fuel economic slowdowns. Trump faces his worst approval ratings and the prospect that the GOP could lose power in November.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters Monday that it remains unclear whether leaders will extend a trade truce expiring in November. That agreement currently keeps tariffs in the low double-digit range and lifted Beijing's export restrictions on rare earths.
A short moment at the reception of China's head of state Xi Jinping makes a mockery: while US military planes are thundering over the presidents, Donald Trump is visibly twitching together.