The long-anticipated, once-delayed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping was finally held this week. The two men engaged in pageantry, tourism and talks to stabilize the relationship among the world’s two biggest economies, one a long-time superpower and the other a budding regional hegemon.
For all the weight attached to that last task, expectations for the meeting were low. The U.S. was focused on a set of tangible deliverables that it sought from China. For its part, China sought to establish a larger framework for bilateral engagement that would set a floor for the relationship and ease pressure on Beijing as it seeks to expand its influence.
Trump will declare the meeting a win for his diplomacy and credit his personal relationship with the Chinese leader. Xi will be less effusive but equally quick to claim that the meeting met his nation’s objectives. Both will have grounds for satisfaction, but if history is any precedent, the U.S. president’s claims will prove more ephemeral.
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