John Everard

They want to try to get Donald Trump to shift his position.

Now, two big elements here.

Firstly, Donald Trump, as we've found out over his entire presidency, is not very good at sticking to scripts.

And if the US president goes off script,

says something different from the current U.S.

line, that sticks.

That's now the new U.S.

diplomatic position.

And I'm sure the Chinese will have laid various traps to try to trip him into doing just that.

That's the first element.

The second is he has with him his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who's a known China hawk.

And people in Washington are whispering that Marco Rubio's real job on this trip is to throw himself across Donald Trump if he looks like going off strips.

He is Donald Trump's minder on China.