(Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
under the gaze of the whole world and in front of camera flashes, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump shook hands in Busan on Thursday during a highly anticipated meeting, the first since Mr. Trump was sworn in as President of the United States last January.
Later, as their 1.44-hour meeting drew to a close in the Republic of Korea’s second-largest city, Xi and Trump walked side by side toward the exit of the meeting venue. They shook hands as farewell.
The two presidents met against a backdrop of growing global economic challenges and protectionist trends. Many international observers viewed the high-stakes meeting as a crucial opportunity to stabilize what many describe as the world’s most important bilateral relationship and reinvigorate confidence in the global economy.
CHARTING THE PATH TO RELATIONSHIPS
Since Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January, the two heads of state have maintained close communication through telephone conversations and letters. As Xi pointed out during the meeting, under their joint leadership, China-US relations have remained generally stable.
Facing winds, waves and challenges, Xi said, the two leaders must stay the course, navigate a complex landscape and ensure the steady progress of the gigantic ship that is China-US relations.
Mr. Trump relayed this spirit of collaboration, saying that relations between the United States and China have always been strong and will continue to improve, expressing his hope for a brighter common future.
It was not the first time that Xi used the metaphor of recalibrating the direction of the “gigantic ship of China-US relations” to highlight the fundamental task facing current bilateral relations.
In a telephone conversation with Mr. Trump in June, after a high-level Sino-US meeting on economic and trade issues in Geneva, which led to a series of bilateral talks on economy and trade, Mr. Xi stressed that it was “particularly important” for the two leaders to avoid disruption and upheaval.
The two sides should make good use of the economic and trade consultation mechanism already in place and seek win-win results in the spirit of equality and mutual respect, Xi said on the occasion.
Interactions between China and the United States should reflect the characteristics of a new era, said Gu Qingyang, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, stressing that the “Thucydides Trap”, which refers to the confrontation between an established power and a rising power, is not inevitable as many believe.
“We do not want to see China and the United States divided, decoupled or in confrontation, as this would be detrimental to both countries. Both nations are already world leaders, and each is too powerful to ignore the other,” Gu said.
Ahead of the Busan meeting, the two countries’ economic and trade teams held a new round of consultations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and reached a basic consensus on how to address each other’s main concerns, which created the conditions for Thursday’s meeting.
On Thursday, Xi urged the two sides to work out and finalize follow-up measures as soon as possible, and ensure that joint agreements are effectively respected and implemented, so as to instill confidence in the two countries as well as the global economy through concrete results.
The two teams can continue their discussions in the spirit of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit, and continue to reduce the list of problems and expand the list of cooperations, Xi said.
In a written statement provided to Xinhua, Maya Majueran, founding director of the Belt and Road Initiative in Sri Lanka, said the meeting sent a reassuring signal that the world’s two largest economies seek to manage their relationship responsibly rather than drifting towards confrontation.
For Tom Watkins, former advisor to the Michigan-China Innovation Center, “mutual respect” is the key to future relations between the United States and China.
“Each side must understand that an error of judgment will have devastating consequences,” Mr. Watkins said, adding that despite the ups and downs of bilateral relations over the past decades, “both sides have been able to move forward with discernment.”
“All the major global issues come together in Beijing and Washington. And how our leaders resolve these issues will shape the future of the world,” he reiterated.
BROADER IMPACT ON THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION AND BEYOND
The world is currently grappling with growing uncertainties and strengthening protectionist trends, and the Asia-Pacific region is no exception. Trade barriers are piling up, geopolitical rivalries are deepening, and the multilateral trading system is coming under increasing strain. Against this backdrop, Mr. Xi’s call for dialogue rather than confrontation resonated well beyond the Busan meeting room.
Noting that China-US economic and trade relations have experienced ups and downs recently, the Chinese president noted that trade relations should continue to serve as an anchor and driving force for China-US relations, not a stumbling block or point of friction. Xi said the two countries should think big and recognize the long-term benefits of cooperation, and not fall into a vicious circle of mutual retaliation.
On Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce revealed the results achieved by the Chinese and American delegations during their recent economic and trade negotiations in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
According to a ministry spokesperson, the United States will cancel the so-called 10 percent “fentanyl tariff” and suspend, for another year, the 24 percent reciprocal tariff imposed on Chinese products, including those from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region, while in response, China will make corresponding adjustments to its countermeasures and continue to implement certain exclusion measures. tariff.
The United States will suspend for one year the implementation of a new rule announced on September 29 aimed at extending its export restrictions provided for by the “entity list” to any entity owned at least 50% by one or more entities appearing on this list. China, meanwhile, will suspend the implementation of export control measures announced on Oct. 9 for a year, and study and refine specific plans, the spokesperson said.
Among other outcomes, Washington agreed to suspend measures issued under its Article 301 investigation targeting China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors for a year, with Beijing in return pledging to suspend its countermeasures once the US suspension takes effect.
Experts in the Asia-Pacific region see this cooperative vision as both timely and necessary.
From Beijing’s perspective, Majueran said, the path forward is not one of inevitable competition but one of necessary coordination, recalling that Chinese leaders frequently emphasize a “win-win” model of cooperation, an approach that rejects zero-sum thinking in favor of shared progress.
For his part, Eng Kok Thay, Secretary of State of the Council of Ministers of Cambodia, said he believes that the meeting between Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump offers an opportunity to defuse tensions between these two major countries and return to dialogue to resolve outstanding issues.
During Thursday’s meeting, the Chinese president, noting that today’s world is facing many difficult problems, also affirmed that China and the United States can jointly shoulder their responsibility as great powers and work together to accomplish more great and concrete things, for the benefit of the two countries and more broadly the whole world.
According to Eng Kok Thay, “the trajectory of China-US relations will to a large extent define the strategic and economic environment in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.”
Cooperation ensures trade stability, technological exchanges and security, results that will benefit not only the region but the entire world, he added.
