President Donald Trump just concluded the first Asia trip of his second term with one of the highest-stakes dealmaking sessions of his career. His meeting with Xi Jinping did not end in a fiery outburst or the grand bargain the Chinese desired and most Americans and their allies feared, but it was far from inconsequential. The incomplete and tentative agreement struck in Busan, South Korea, revealed the path each superpower is pursuing to dominate global affairs and why they remain at odds.
Trump was pleased with the summit. "Overall, I guess on the scale of from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12," he exulted on the way home.
President Donald Trump just concluded the first Asia trip of his second term with one of the highest-stakes dealmaking sessions of his career. His meeting with Xi Jinping did not end in a fiery outburst or the grand bargain the Chinese desired and most Americans and their allies feared, but it was far from inconsequential. The incomplete and tentative agreement struck in Busan, South Korea, revealed the path each superpower is pursuing to dominate global affairs and why they remain at odds.
Trump was pleased with the summit. "Overall, I guess on the scale of from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12," he exulted on the way home.
A real G2 would have resolved the Taiwan issue. Beijing wants a deal that enables it to absorb the island democracy or, at the very least, demoralizes the Taiwanese who want to escape domination by the mainland. Trump said that "Taiwan never came up" with Xi.
Other Trumpian moves made Xi’s military options less attractive. Just before their meeting, Trump ordered the military to test its nuclear deterrent for the first time in 33 years and agreed to let South Korea build nuclear-powered submarines in Philadelphia. Neither announcement will fill the Zhongnanhai with joy.
China’s attempts to harm the United States domestically also remain. Xi continues to poison the minds of America’s youth with TikTok, which he reportedly calls "spiritual opium," and their bodies with fentanyl. Trump lowered the fentanyl tariffs on Thursday, but he did not remove them because the deadly flow continues.
Beijing’s insecurities about its grip on the Chinese people also drive it to offend and horrify Trump’s base. Just before the summit, the Chinese government arrested senior pastor Ezra Jin Mingri and the other leaders of Zion Church, the largest underground church in China. This latest Communist attack on people of faith was a poke in Trump’s eye, since in his last term his administration criticized a similar crackdown, and American Evangelicals are among the most resolute friends of China’s Christians.
Xi and Trump departed Busan with kind words all around. But as Shakespeare reminds us, in matters of high politics, there's daggers in men's smiles.