A choreographed detente: Reading the Trump-Xi summit
Xi’s move to host Russia so soon after Washington’s visit suggests Beijing plans to maintain its full portfolio of relationships
Add BT as a preferred source
THE two-day summit that ended in Beijing on Friday (May 15) was the first state visit by a sitting American president to China in nearly a decade.
On the surface, it produced exactly what both leaders needed it to: handshakes at the Great Hall of the People, a stroll at the Temple of Heaven, a state banquet and a joint commitment to build what the Chinese readout called a “constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability”.
Beneath the choreography, however, the summit was less a turning point than a managed pause, a continuation of the detente reached at Busan in October 2025, dressed up for the cameras and stretched thin across three issues where the two governments still want very different things.
TRENDING NOW
What makes a good job? Feeling that you matter
Faishal Ibrahim resigns over online messages with a female member of the public
When the disruptor gets disrupted: How Chinese open-source AI is eating its own industry
Retail resets: Mall owners reposition shopping centres as Singapore’s consumer landscape evolves
