When U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping finally meet in mid-May in Beijing, the optics will be grand and the words may be noteworthy, but the outcome is unlikely to be earth-shattering. Idle speculation about a China-U.S. G-2 condominium or pronouncements that fundamentally alter the nature of the rivalry is largely baseless.
The trip, however, may offer a revealing window into the divergent strategic approaches of the two leaders. In that sense, Trump’s second highly choreographed reception in the Forbidden City may still mark a milestone in a bilateral competition that, at present, is trending in China’s direction.
