Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump will meet in the South Korean city of Busan on Thursday, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the two world leaders since 2019. The meeting happened at Gimhae Air Base, and footage from the venue showed Trump offering Xi a warm greeting.
Trump walked out first and was greeted by his counterpart. “Good to see you again,” Trump said as he shook Xi’s hand.
The US President also lavished praise on Xi, calling him a “friend”. “It’s a great honor to be with a friend of mine, really, for a long time now,” Trump said before calling Xi a “distinguished and respected” and a “great leader of a great country.”
“We will be having some discussions. I think we’ve already agreed to a lot of things, and we’ll agree to some more right now,” Trump said, referring to last weekend’s trade talks between top US and Chinese officials.
Xi didn’t hold back either as he praised Trump’s peacemaking but said both countries didn’t see “eye to eye” on several topics, but called it “normal” for two leading economies of the world.
“The two leaders should stay the right course and ensure the steady sailing forward of the giant ship of China-US relations. I always believe that China’s development goes hand in hand with your vision to make America great again,” Xi said.
Despite Xi’s amiable words, experts say Xi believes he is on an equal footing with Trump and is likely to reassert himself.
Gao Shuchao, a trade expert and law professor at Singapore Management University, told The New York Times Chinese that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s statement on Monday that Trump and Xi Jinping are "world-class leaders" who have a "long history of interaction and mutual respect” hinted that China has reached an equal footing with the United States.
“This wording is a self-affirmation by China that it has reached an equal footing with the United States—it shows that Xi Jinping believes he is on equal footing with Trump," Gao said.
He added that this means Xi will present his demands in a more assertive manner during the meeting. Beijing has been pushing Washington to reduce tariffs on Chinese goods, ease export controls on computer chips and other technologies, and withdraw its latest threats of further tariffs and other punitive measures.
On the other hand, the US wants Beijing to resume buying U.S. soybeans and to prevent the flow of chemicals needed to manufacture illicit fentanyl into the United States. U.S. officials have also called on Beijing to lift its new controls on rare earth exports. “Both leaders believe they and their countries are in a very strong position. They believe they have significant influence over each other,” said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund. “Neither side wants to appear weak in front of their domestic audience.”