Six years ago, on April 8, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a celebrated visit to Palm Beach, Florida in the US, setting foot in the private club “Mar-a-Lago” and dining there with US President Barack Obama and their wives. On that evening, a slice of cake was served to them, thus initiating what was expected to be a new era of relationship between the two countries.
Today, six years later on April 7, 2019, Xi Jinping makes a return visit to the United States, this time for a two day stay in Washington DC, during the course of which he will be meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss the trade tension between the two countries. Times have changed since the optimistic days of 2013. This is a much more fraught encounter, a diplomatic minefield full of stress and anticipation.
It is no exaggeration to say that the stakes couldn’t be higher. The US trade deficit with China is at an all-time high, the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and retaliated by China have been escalating, and the situation has been further complicated with the US decision to ground air Boeing 777 planes, setting back the Chinese airline industry.
Under such circumstances, all eyes are on what kind of progress the two sides will make in curbing the mounting trade tensions. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration can reach a win-win solution on this visit, or if the situation will deteriorate further.
If anything, Xi’s return to the United States is a reminder of how quickly things can change in international relations. Six years ago, sitting down at a private club in Florida, eating cake and discussing a wide range of topics, the US and China were much closer, politically speaking. Today, both are looking at each other with suspicion, and the cake appears to have been replaced with a great deal of enmity and mistrust.