Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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China's Xi Jinping warns President Trump on Taiwan, underscoring the tensions around a visit Trump had teased as the best summit ever.
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Well, day one of the Trump-Xi summit is underway. And to help us decipher some early signals coming out of the high stakes gathering in Beijing, I've got Journal Beijing Bureau Chief John Cheng and Wall Street Journal National Security Reporter Alex Ward on the line from the Chinese capital.
John, Alex, anyone nerding out over this summit will have seen reference in a lot of outlets to the five B's that the U.S. is seeking progress on this week, among other things, setting up a board of trade, selling Boeing planes, as well as American beef. But since the real negotiating day is tomorrow, I propose that we look at two P's instead, pageantry and prepared remarks. John?
Patrick, is it all pomp and circumstance or something actually worth watching?
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.
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Chapter 2: What warnings did Xi Jinping give President Trump regarding Taiwan?
Has that changed anything about how Trump is being received this time around?
Well, actually, I would say the first P, pageantry, leads into what I would offer as a third P, which is power. If there was so much pageantry in the first session, this one is much more about the power that these two countries can execute together. Their actual opening statements talked about the superpower relationship. Trump, I think at this point, he's not as in charge as he was in 2017.
The Iran war is looming. His political prospects are getting weighed down by that war, by a struggling economy. He doesn't really have the upper hand in this. And now he's in Xi's house. In fact, there's already the clip of reporters asking Trump about Taiwan after she released this statement giving some stark warning about the Taiwan issue. Trump was uncharacteristically quiet.
And that, I think, gives some insight into a couple of things. One, the politics of the issue. Two, the general sensitivities of Trump maybe not wanting to upset his host. But three, about Trump loves to wax poetic and be extemporaneous. And in this case, he's being very measured. And so I think this gives us a sense of
While Trump is enjoying himself, he doesn't really have the luxury of being overly fetid because one of his standing and two, I think also how China feels about years of tension. Right.
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Chapter 3: How is the U.S. responding to the hantavirus outbreak?
2017 was the year in which the U.S. really changed policy towards China, made it much more antagonistic. Trump is now switching back to try to make it more friendly. But, you know, China has not forgotten the last decade.
And John, I think Alex has actually set us up there really nicely to close things out by talking about some of the red lines Xi has already drawn ahead of negotiations, namely around Taiwan.
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. And we don't know what the president said in response, at least not yet.
I think the early evidence based on the fact that reporters asked Trump to talk about Taiwan and he
wouldn't signals he knows the sensitivities around this issue, that he might be leaving the Taiwan discussion for the private sessions and not willing to talk about it in public, because the White House is very clear, you know, in the lead up to this, there would be no policy changes whatsoever on Taiwan, which is why the most she could hope for was a rhetorical one, which would still cause quite the uproar.
So for Trump to be quiet on the Taiwan issue, I think makes clear that he knows that that is the biggest minefield he could step on during this. The interesting thing, and there was also the concern that, you know, Trump might make some sort of Taiwan rhetoric trade for an economic deal or some Chinese support to end the war in Iran.
You know, the irony of all this is that the Chinese for so long have said that Taiwan It's just a non-negotiable issue that it cannot be sort of traded for for anything. This summit was supposed to be centered around economics and trade. This message from Xi is now dominating early and threatening to darken the mood here.
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