Xi-Trump Summit Signals Stability Despite Few Concrete Outcomes, Analysts Say

Xi-Trump atmospherics welcomed but mask structural rifts: analysts

The three-day summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended on Friday with both leaders stressing an increasingly close relationship, even though the meeting produced few concrete deliverables.

Talks seen as a stabilising signal

The fact that the two economic and military giants are talking, and pledging to talk some more, suggested to analysts, companies and former US officials that some period of relative stability may lie ahead.

That assessment came with caveats, but it marked a contrast with last year’s all-out trade war, chest-thumping and market turmoil.

“Both countries are demonstrating some degree of restraint,” said Sara Schuman, managing director at consultancy Beacon Global Strategies and a former US diplomat in Beijing.

The meeting’s importance, as described by analysts and former officials, was therefore not only in formal outcomes but also in the decision by Washington and Beijing to keep channels open.

Optics became the deliverable

During the summit, Trump and Xi worked overtime to underscore their relationship, even as the concrete results remained limited.

“The optics that President Xi is travelling to Washington and he’s receiving a full state visit with a state dinner, this is in itself the core deliverable,” Schuman said.

By that definition, the visit was “chock full,” with the visible diplomacy itself carrying much of the weight of the encounter.

For analysts, companies and former US officials, that atmospherics-driven outcome still mattered because it pointed to restraint and continued dialogue between two economic and military giants.

Source: South China Morning Post