Jon Cheng

It is definitely something worth watching because political symbolism is so important in general, but especially to the Chinese leadership.

So I think given all of the uncertainty around this summit, whether it would even happen, what date it would happen, who would be there, and yet they have, of course, pulled out all the stops.

It hasn't been terribly different from the kind of red carpet treatment that the president got in 2017.

You still have the greeting from the honor guard, from young Chinese men and women jumping up and down and waving flags and flowers.

And then you had the two leaders going to the Temple of Heaven.

This is a centuries-old temple in central Beijing.

where the emperors of China used to go to pray for good harvest.

So it has been quite a nice sort of reception, especially if you are Donald Trump.

And this is definitely something that he's talked a lot about looking back to his 2017 trip and that he seemed to very much be looking forward to.

Yeah, you know, Taiwan was always going to be a top shelf issue for the Chinese.

They see it as absolutely central to any sort of stability between these two countries.

And so insofar as there's going to be any support, any aid, any kind of positivity that is exuded from Washington towards Taiwan's government, that's going to be a problem for the Chinese.

And so this is an issue that matters a lot more to Xi Jinping than it does to Donald Trump.

Perhaps that's why the president is not jumping in there.

I think he recognizes how sensitive this is for the Chinese.

And certainly it's a complex issue with a long history.

And

It is interesting that we first hear about this Taiwan warning, if you want to call it that, from Chinese state media.

This isn't something that the American press was able to witness or to report on.

This came from Chinese state media that Xi Jinping told this to Donald Trump.