This episode unpacks President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, the first by a sitting U.S. President in nearly a decade, as the United States and China work through a tense period of détente.

 

Host:

James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

 

Guest:

Rush Doshi, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow for Asia Studies and Director of the China Strategy Initiative

 

We Discuss:

• Whether the Trump-Xi summit will represent continuity or a new phase in the U.S.-China relationship.
• How China assesses the military and economic balance of power with the United States.
• What last year's trade war revealed and how it produced the current period of managed competition.
• As Rush Doshi puts it: “I don’t think there’s going to be a large structural breakthrough.”
• What deliverables the Trump administration is seeking from the summit, and why negotiations are focused on process mechanisms and stability.
• How China has responded to the U.S.-Iran war and why it has stayed on the sidelines despite having clear strategic interests.
• Why China welcomes U.S. entanglement in foreign conflicts but fears their effects on global trade and resource access.
• Why China is more exposed than the United States freedom of navigation threats and naval chokepoints.
• Why President Biden never traveled to Beijing, and how China is framing Trump's visit.
• Why American CEOs are joining Trump's trip, and what role they play in the summit.
• Whether the U.S. and China will negotiate agreements on artificial intelligence and its role in great power competition.
• How China has treated seemingly mutually-beneficial crisis communication channels as negotiation ploys in return for U.S. concessions. 
• Whether Taiwan will be on the agenda, what concessions China is seeking, and how U.S. policy shifts could affect internal Taiwanese politics on unification.
• How a so-called Board of Trade and other bilateral mechanisms could formalize a lasting state of managed trade between the two countries

 

Mentioned on the Episode:

 

“President Xi Jinping Speaks with U.S. President Donald J. Trump on the Phone” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

 

Evelyn Cheng, “Trump is taking more than a dozen U.S. executives to China. Jensen Huang isn’t one of them,” CNBC

 

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/trump-and-xi-in-beijing-with-rush-doshi 

 

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.