President Trump’s visit to China has ended.
I had predicted that there would be no tangible outcome from that trip:
Trump is coming to Beijing with his cap in his hand. He, as usual, will try to bluff a way to ‘victory’. He will proceed as if the U.S. were in a great position. The Chinese will be polite, but won’t have any of it.
There have been little preparations for the trip. The sherpas did not convene beforehand to straighten out serious issues between the countries. There are no big contracts or treaties to sign.
One hope had been to sell some 500 Boeing jets to several Chinese airlines. Returning from the trip Trump has claimed that China would buy 200 airplanes. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to confirm that. Boeing’s stock price dropped.
Some 20 company bosses had joined Trump on the trip. But there seem to have been no plans or tasks for any of them. No deals were made, no contracts were signed.
Trump offered to lift the U.S. blockade on the sales of some older NVIDIA AI chips to China. China declined as it now makes its own chips with similar characteristics.
The Chinese side spoke of a “new positioning” and a “constructive strategic stability” as major outcomes of the talks.
The “new positioning” is seeing the U.S. and China as equals with China being objectively in a better position.
The “constructive strategic stability” could be interpreted as an advise to the U.S. to shut up and stay quiet while China is doing its thing:
President Xi clearly pointed out that “constructive strategic stability” means positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, healthy stability with competition within proper limits, constant stability with manageable differences, and lasting stability with expectable peace. These “four stabilities” paint a clear and feasible blueprint for China-US relations. It is not a stopgap measure, but a long-term approach. It is not a zero-sum game, but a mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. The “four stabilities” lead strategic stability with a constructive attitude and safeguard long-term development through strategic stability, fully demonstrating that China-US relations are a relationship between major powers fully capable of helping each other succeed and prospering together.
While Trump was in China some 30 Chinese ships moved through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with the Iranian authorities. Given that Trump was in China the U.S. blockaders in the Arab Sea did not dare to make attempts to stop those ships. This has thus has set a precedence which will allow continues Chinese shipping.
For China the Strait is open.