What Did Trump Carry on His Way Back?

When the heads of government of Bangladesh go on a foreign trip, a large delegation accompany them. Businessmen usually join the delegation with a hope to win the heart of the head of government. That may offer them opportunities at home, if not abroad. In many cases, businessmen will rather bribe their leaders to join the waggon or pressure the government to uphold their cause.
Apart from Bangladesh, such incidents also happen during visits of heads of state or governments of other countries. When the Chinese prime minister visited India in 2005, he was accompanied by over a hundred businessmen. In the recent visit to China, Donald Trump was accompanied by the all-square Elon Musk and many CEOs of leading American business houses like Apple, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Citi, Blackstone, Boeing and Nvidia, and high representatives from Meta, Visa, Cisco, Qualcomm, Micron, GE, Mastercard, etc.
We visit foreign countries to receive benefits, not to bother about the other side. Donald Trump’s visit to China this time was similar to that. As if Trump went to China to gain, not to offer anything. There were heaves of high hopes back in America. The business delegation was not there to play Trump’s band but to make sure Trump does not walk away from trade talks.

Diplomatic negotiation has some norms. The rule of the game is to reach a common point that benefits both parties. Party A will make some concessions to Party B. In return, Party B will offer its concessions to Party A so that both parties can feel that they have won the negotiations. It is very difficult to reach such a compromise in the case of the United States and China. While the United States is the largest economic power, China is not only the second largest but is also in line to quickly overtake the United States. Therefore, they are more prone to competition than cooperation. There was already an agreement to buy 200 Boeings. Bloomberg predicted that there would be a deal to buy 500. Interested parties quickly grabbed shares of Boeing. After the visit, the enthusiasm rapidly evaporated, and Boeing’s share price fell. China knows the value of the rare earth minerals. That is why it keeps those close to its heart. It means the United States will have to make concessions elsewhere to ensure the availability of those. Considering the gulf of differences between the two superpowers, the possibility of a major trade breakthrough was always bleak. Even then, if there is some progress in the trade sector, the room for concessions in the political sector seems to be even narrower.
China holds very distinct positions on almost all global issues, and most of the time, those conflict with the American position. Since Deng Xiaoping’s reign, China has consistently maintained that Taiwan is an integral part of its territory, but there could be one state, two norms. As a result, China will not tolerate any US initiative to strengthen Taiwan militarily. That means the United States will not be able to supply Taiwan with weapons so easily.
As it is revealed, China now has very little appetite for Nvidia’s advanced electronic chips. Rather, it preferred to invent its own. As a result, even though Trump insisted the CEO of chipmaker Nvidia fly straight from Alaska, China’s reluctance has surely disappointed them. The two leaders are likely to meet several more times this year: in New York in September, in Shenzhen in November, and in Miami in December. There is certainly room for further discussion of the issues that remained unresolved at the Beijing meetings.
America is a multicultural society. There are people of many opinions and paths, many races and religions, but under the same blue-red flag, they sing the song of cultural multiplicity, equal rights and democracy. On the other hand, China has a communist-style regime. Western liberal democracy is absent there. There is no multiparty system. There is no ethnic or linguistic diversity. In this era of AI, where Trump is high-fiving American supremacy, China is bringing the spirit of civilisational pluralism to the fore. It is not surprising that most people around the world probably looked at Xi to see how he forced the high-fiving Trump to look down at the ground. Donald Trump probably behaved the most restrained during this visit. He did not do any of his natural circus. As if he were mad in creed but steady in deed.
Withstanding all these differences between the two, there were definitely some agreements too, although the broad agreement was neither signed nor written anywhere. The first agreement is that both are the world’s top two economic powers. And the level of power is almost the same. Second, both the countries have spheres of political influence of their own worldwide. And third, any meeting between them is crucial for the stability, progress, development and future of the world.
Apart from the agreements, the world will look to the future with hope for what was not agreed upon. The world is looking at a permanent ceasefire to the Iran war, an amenable position on global issues like climate change or world peace, a rightful future for the people in Gaza and elsewhere, and a balance of power structure for the world. Neither of the two leaders showed any interest in such matters. Donald Trump is concerned with immediate economic gains and remains preoccupied with the November midterm elections. Xi Jinping is interested in lingering in time and, meanwhile, maintaining the apparent status quo of the current world order. Xi knows that China needs more time to play a different global role. Putting the cart before the horse can lead to disaster. Trump can clap with one hand. Even if he gets nothing, he can act with a big mouth that appears like he has a mouthful of food. If Elon Musk and others sit down with musical instruments to match Trump’s tunes, a beautiful orchestra can be born to grace the stage. The White House statement on China Visit is exactly playing that orchestra. Xi Jinping does not have to take the orchestra to the Chinese people. That is why he can keep a constant smile on his face. It looks like a smile of wisdom.
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The writer is a former Bangladeshi Ambassador