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Fan Chen

Statements issued by China and the United States after their summit on Thursday revealed stark contrasts in each side’s priorities.
Washington focused on trade, fentanyl and Iran, while Beijing emphasised Taiwan, stabilising bilateral ties and Donald Trump’s compliments about President Xi Jinping.
Trump’s state visit to China marks the first trip to the country by a US president in nine years and it began in the morning with more than two hours of talks between Xi and Trump in the Chinese capital.
The Chinese statement about the meeting highlighted an agreement between the leaders that the two countries should have a “constructive strategic stable relationship”, a framing that should guide relations for the “next three years and beyond”.
Trump’s term in office runs for a further three years.


Beijing’s statement also raised the question of whether the US and China could establish a new paradigm for major-power relations and transcend the “Thucydides Trap”, the theory that a rising power and an established hegemon are destined for war. These were questions “posed by history, the world and the people”, it said.
Taiwan was also a prominent part of the statement, describing how Xi called it “the most important issue in China-US relations”.
“If [Taiwan is] handled well, bilateral relations can maintain overall stability. If handled poorly, the two countries will clash or even fight, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a very dangerous situation,” Xi warned. “‘Taiwan independence’ and peace across the Taiwan Strait are incompatible.”
However, both the Taiwan issue and stabilising ties were not mentioned in the US’ shorter readout, which ran to just 158 words and began by saying the two heads of state had a “good” meeting.
Instead, the US comments were mostly about deals on trade and market access, highlighting Trump’s focus on getting China to buy more American agricultural products.
The leaders also talked about the need to do more to stem “the flow of fentanyl precursors” into the US, Washington’s statement said.


Beijing did not mention the chemicals used to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, in its readout. Rather, it touched briefly on expanding cooperation on trade and other areas such as military-to-military communication, agriculture, tourism and law enforcement.
Regarding trade relations with the US, Xi said China’s door to the world “will only open wider”, according to the Chinese statement.
The two sides also differed in their references to the Iran crisis.
Beijing merely mentioned that the two sides “exchanged views” on major international issues such as the situation in the Middle East, the Ukraine war and the Korean peninsula.
In contrast, the White House said the two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open and that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon.
“President Xi also made clear China’s opposition to the militarisation of the strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the strait in the future,” it said.
In Beijing’s readout, the sections attributed to Trump focused mostly on his praise for China and its “great leader”, along with his hopes for ushering in the “best US-China relationship in history” while offering little insight into his views on specific policy issues.


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Beijing highlights the need for stable ties and peace, while Washington focuses on fentanyl and agricultural products


Beijing highlights the need for stable ties and peace, while Washington focuses on fentanyl and agricultural products.


Iran

United States

Taiwan

How did the US and China tell 2 different stories about the summit?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Beijing highlights the need for stable ties and peace, while Washington focuses on fentanyl and agricultural products

Beijing highlights the need for stable ties and peace, while Washington focuses on fentanyl and agricultural products