Within just 43 hours, the 79-year-old president held two meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, inspected troops, attended a state banquet and walked around the Temple of Heaven in sweltering heat – not to mention making his characteristic social media postings in the wee hours of the morning.
Showing no signs of jet lag, Trump seemed to be in high spirits, glad-handing everyone he met and looking genuinely happy. In Beijing, he was on his best behaviour, temporarily abandoning the signature antics he has so often deployed to bamboozle other world leaders. He followed protocol, spoke like a consummate diplomat and – despite his well-known abstinence from alcohol – even appeared to take a sip of champagne when toasting his Chinese hosts.
And it was not just Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio – who remains on China’s sanctions list – looked relaxed and friendly. A video of him admiring the ornate ceiling inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People quickly went viral.
If an alien had visited Earth this week, it might have concluded that this was a meeting between two great allies, rather than two superpowers locked in an intense rivalry that threatens to collapse global peace and order.
Yet, it would be naive to believe that two days of fraternisation between Xi and Trump will reset a relationship fraught with mutual suspicion. While both leaders smiled for the cameras, the readouts released afterwards revealed that each remained strictly focused on their own priorities. Details about any actual deals remain scarce and opaque and many pitfalls lie ahead – particularly over the US handling of the Taiwan issue.
