Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington in September was steeped in pageantry. The Chinese president received two 21-gun salutes in three days, watched a flyover by the powerful B-2 stealth bomber, and viewed the founding documents of American democracy at the National Archives.
US President Donald Trump called his summit with Xi a “great meeting” and rated it a “12 out of 10”. Xi was also positive, saying “everything is done to the highest order of perfection, and there is thought in every little detail”.
But according to people with knowledge of the matter, Beijing had wanted more from the trip.
The sources told the South China Morning Post that Beijing had pushed for a more ambitious programme for Xi’s first state visit to the United States in more than a decade.
Beijing suggested Xi could engage with the American business community and public, pushed to raise dozens of diplomatic and security issues with Trump, and proposed talks on artificial intelligence between Chinese and American executives, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media.
But none of those pitches made it to the itinerary of what ended up being a tightly choreographed visit – albeit one that was hailed by both sides as historic and productive.
In the lead-up to the trip, Chinese officials are said to have contacted the embassies of other nations in Washington to compare notes and plan what one source called a “grand visit” for Xi. The source said officials were trying to find out what sort of reception the Trump administration might give Xi, and the activities that could be offered for his itinerary.
A separate source said Beijing wanted to know what the Americans had done for other visiting foreign dignitaries, hoping to “take the best of all the different programme options”.
People familiar with the matter also told the SCMP that Chinese officials had floated the idea of Xi holding a dialogue with US business leaders or speaking to students at a top university in Washington or New York.
They said the Trump administration had knocked back those suggestions, citing the need for the visit to be reciprocal and mirror Trump’s May trip to Beijing. US officials were also said to be wary of giving Xi a platform to amplify his views.
In 2015 – the last time Xi made a state visit to the US – he had extensive engagements with American business leaders. During that week-long trip that took him from Seattle to New York and Washington, Xi visited Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond and toured Boeing’s factory in Everett.
Xi also visited Lincoln High School in Tacoma on that trip, where he engaged with teachers and students and delivered a speech touching on building a better future for US-China relations, according to a Chinese readout of the school visit.
The eventual itinerary for Xi this time was largely similar to Trump’s visit to Beijing, where he was welcomed with a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People, served tea at the Zhongnanhai compound – where China’s top leaders live and work – and taken on a stroll with Xi through the Temple of Heaven.
In Washington, Xi was welcomed with a state dinner in the White House’s East Room, served morning tea in the Red Room, and he also visited the National Archives with Trump.
One striking difference was that, while no Chinese executives accompanied Xi to Washington in September, American business leaders – including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk – travelled with Trump to Beijing in May and attended a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People.
American business executives also attended the state dinner Trump hosted for Xi at the White House but the extent of their engagement with the Chinese leader remains unclear.
The sources also said there were initial discussions to bring together executives from top Chinese and American tech firms to discuss artificial intelligence, in a governmental effort to boost cooperation on AI.
But that suggestion did not materialise, with the US citing national security concerns.
China and the US did agree, however, to establish an AI dialogue to “exchange views on risks and benefits related to AI” and to set up a communication channel for AI incidents, according to readouts from the two sides.
As Xi’s visit neared, Chinese officials grew anxious that the summit’s agenda had narrowed almost entirely to trade, leaving little room for other diplomatic and security issues, according to the sources.
Beijing then put forward a list of more than a dozen such issues for Xi to raise with Trump, they said.
But the White House rejected the suggestions, saying Trump would only engage on issues involving Iran, alongside planning for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 summits.
China is hosting the Apec gathering in Shenzhen in November while the US will host the G20 summit in Miami in December.
In readouts after the Xi-Trump meeting, both countries said they would “support each other as respective hosts” of the events.
Iran was also mentioned in the statements, with the two leaders agreeing that Tehran should not develop nuclear weapons and that no country or institution should be allowed to impose tolls on an international waterway.
A White House factsheet of the meeting said the two leaders also discussed global concerns including Russia and North Korea. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
