Can Xi Jinping and Donald Trump show maturity when it matters, despite their contrasting styles?

Douglas H. Paal says the two strong and powerful leaders must show flexibility during the Sino-US summit in Palm Beach and work to avert conflict, whatever it takes

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Douglas H. Paal

Published: 5:40pm, 3 Apr 2017Updated: 8:49pm, 3 Apr 2017

When Trump greets Xi, it will be the US president who walks with a political limp, earned early in his term of office through the mismanagement of the hasty repeal of Obamacare. Illustration: Craig Stephens

When Donald Trump was a boy, his parents apparently concluded he needed discipline. So they sent him to a military school. What he was taught apparently did not stick, however, judging from his chaotic behaviour as an adult and now as president of the United States.

When Xi Jinping ( 習近平 ) was a boy, he experienced the life-threatening chaos of the Cultural Revolution at first hand and learned to subjugate and discipline himself. Now, as China’s Communist Party general secretary and the nation’s president, he is making the rest of China feel his preference for strict discipline.

What can we expect when such different people meet later this week at Mar-a-Lago in Florida? Will it be like oil and water, like yin and yang?

Trump vs Xi: prepare for a clash of views on big global issues

Both men fashion themselves to be strong leaders. But when Trump greets Xi, it will be the US president who walks with a political limp, earned early in his term of office through the mismanagement of the hasty repeal of Obamacare. Xi, by contrast, will stride forward as the “core” leader of the Communist Party, an emerging statesman on his way to his apotheosis at the 19th party congress later this year.

When strong leaders meet, the result is usually one of two possibilities: they develop mutual respect and a way to deal with each other, or they can’t stand each other, show disrespect, and seek to come out on top. Think John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Deng Xiaoping ( 鄧小平 ).

A Secret Service agent stands watch as US President Donald Trump departs after spending the weekend at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, last month. American preparation for the summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been of a piece with the rest of the post-inauguration administration: hasty and scant by comparison with previous presidencies. Photo: Reuters

Why protocol still matters at Xi-Trump summit

American preparation for the Mar-a-Lago summit has been of a piece with the rest of the post-inauguration administration: hasty and scant by comparison with previous presidencies. Offices are not filled, policies not reviewed, and explanations unmade. Last-minute declarations of intent about trade and deficits appear more to reflect back to campaign rhetoric, and show little strategic thinking about the path ahead. Background briefings betray more bluff than brain.