China maintained the upper hand during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing this week. He visibly tried to ingratiate himself with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but his counterpart made no attempt to reciprocate.

Trump has been heaping praise on Xi personally as a great leader and has vaunted his personal ties with him. He laid it thick at the start of formal delegation-level talks in Beijing, eliciting a smile from the normally impassive Xi who, in turn, did not feel the need to play to audience.

Trump is not particularly popular in China and Xi would have not have wanted, in any case, to unnecessarily rehabilitate him in the public eye in China.

Earlier, during the welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, Trump made several overtly warm physical gestures toward Xi, but the Chinese leader remained formal and impassive. By acting as a suitor, Trump effectively handed Xi the political and psychological upper hand.

Trump effectively cast himself as someone who had come to seek favors from China. His boast that only the number ones, not number twos of top American corporations were accompanying him hardly projected strength, coming after years of Washington’s (and Trump’s own) tirades against China’s business practices, alleged “rip‑offs” of US consumers, and technology theft. This, despite the fact that Trump had imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods and moved to restrict the flow of advanced technology, especially chips, to China.

The message, on the contrary, was one of willingness to explore renewed economic interdependence, with the biggest names in US business looking for openings in the Chinese market – and this after all the talk of decoupling, de‑risking supply chains, onshoring, pushing US firms to invest at home and create American jobs, and so on.

From the media coverage of the visit, it does not seem that the Chinese side felt overwhelmed by the composition of Trump’s delegation. The emphasis in the reporting was on Trump’s praise for Xi, China’s rising stature, the US engaging China as an equal global power, setting a new framework of cooperation, and Trump visiting China when he was relatively weak domestically and needing trade deals before the mid-term elections.

Normally, before a visit of this importance, which has been under preparation for many months, the two sides begin working on a joint statement that would list the agreed-upon outcomes. In this case, no joint statement has been issued, which means that on many contentious points,........

© RT.com