{"id":28160,"date":"2026-05-13T13:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28160\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:36:07","slug":"the-lecturer-and-philosopher-king-xi-jinping-behind-closed-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28160\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lecturer and Philosopher King: Xi Jinping Behind Closed Doors"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than halfway through his third term<\/a> as China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping still remains one of the most opaque figures in global politics, his views on rivals and partners inferred from the tightly controlled choreography of his public appearances.<\/p>\n

But in private meetings with foreign leaders, captured in the accounts of those who were there, along with the occasional hot mic, a sharper portrait emerges. It is of a leader who has no close rivals for power in China, who does not hesitate to lecture less powerful leaders, and who carries himself as a philosopher king in the mold of ancient Chinese rulers.<\/p>\n

And by at least one account, Mr. Xi formed his verdict of President Trump nearly a decade ago \u2014 a judgment likely to have shaped his approach to global affairs ever since, including how he handles Mr. Trump this week in Beijing.<\/p>\n

It was late 2016, and Mr. Trump had just stunned the world weeks earlier by winning the U.S. presidential election. Mr. Xi was meeting President Obama for the final time at a summit in Lima, Peru, and he had questions.<\/p>\n

Mr. Xi seemed baffled as to how American voters could choose someone so unconventional, according to Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama tried to explain to Mr. Xi that Mr. Trump\u2019s rise was a sign of economic frustration in the United States, in part over the loss of manufacturing jobs to China and the theft of intellectual property. Mr. Xi, in Mr. Rhodes\u2019s telling, was displeased with the explanation.<\/p>\n

He put down his pen, folded his arms and said: \u201cIf an immature leader throws the world into chaos, then the world will know who to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as he heads into a summit with Mr. Trump in Beijing, Mr. Xi will want to present China as a stable and strong global power, analysts say, while being conciliatory enough to preserve a fragile trade truce with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect that Xi will show Trump respect but not flatter him,\u201d said Susan Shirk, the author of \u201cOverreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contrast with Trump\u2019s unilateral and disruptive actions will be implicit, not explicit,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The Lecturer: How Xi Treats Middle Powers<\/p>\n

If Mr. Xi treats Washington with cautious restraint, he is less likely to hold back with middle powers like Canada and Britain.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Mr. Xi <\/a>confronted<\/a> then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada at the end of a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia and accused him of leaking details of the previous day\u2019s talks between them to the media. The tense exchange between the two men, who were standing close to each other and speaking through translators, was captured by a news cameraman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not appropriate,\u201d Mr. Xi said, smiling tightly. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not how the conversation was conducted,\u201d he continued, shaking his head. He said sincerity and respect were needed for talks to be productive, and in an implicit warning, added: \u201cOtherwise, the outcome will be hard to say.\u201d Mr. Trudeau tried to argue that he had done nothing wrong by Canadian standards and offered to agree to disagree. Mr. Xi then cut him off and said, \u201cLet\u2019s create the conditions first,\u201d before shaking Mr. Trudeau\u2019s hand and walking off.<\/p>\n

With Canada\u2019s current leader, Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mr. Xi attempted to set the rules of how they should engage, saying he did not want to be criticized in public.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney said Mr. Xi told him in a recent meeting in South Korea, their first since the Canadian leader took office, to raise any issues with him in private. \u201cHe chose to spend the first 10-plus minutes discussing how he wanted the personal interaction to be,\u201d Mr. Carney said at a Lowy Institute event in Sydney in March.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney summarized Mr. Xi\u2019s message<\/a> as: \u201cNo surprises. If you really care about something, be clear,\u201d he said. He added: \u201cI mean, he didn\u2019t say it this way, but I interpret it. Don\u2019t lecture me in public. Bring issues to me directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mr. Xi may not want to be lectured, he has no problem venting to others. When Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain met with Mr. Xi in Beijing in January, the British leader brought up Chinese-Japanese relations, which are at their lowest point in years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr. Xi, who had been calm throughout the meeting, grew agitated and told Mr. Starmer that the tensions were entirely Japan\u2019s fault, according to two people familiar with the interaction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Beijing has waged a pressure campaign against Tokyo after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan told her Parliament that Japan could respond militarily if China attacked Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The Philosopher: How He Engages the Powerful<\/p>\n

The Chinese Communist Party seeks legitimacy by casting itself as custodian of China\u2019s thousands-year-old civilization. Mr. Xi reinforces that tradition by carrying himself like one of China\u2019s ancient philosopher kings whose duties included applying Confucian values to governance and statecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Chinese political culture, the top leader is not supposed to care about day-to-day mundane things,\u201d said Zoe Liu, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cThey are the \u2018son of heaven\u2019 and are supposed to be engaged in philosophical matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

That not only amplifies a leader\u2019s importance, but also emphasizes the greatness of Chinese culture to Western leaders hoping to change Beijing\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n

That was quickly apparent to President Obama during a state visit to Beijing in 2014. After a long private dinner with Mr. Xi in the walled leadership compound known as Zhongnanhai, Mr. Obama\u2019s aides were expecting to hear that the two leaders had spoken about contentious issues like the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, they had this kind of lengthy discussion about whether there is compatibility between individualist societies and collectivist Confucian societies,\u201d said Mr. Rhodes, the former Obama adviser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than halfway through his third term as China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping still remains one of the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12573,17181,13614,13083,17179,8,4689,13636,13084,9,12572,13025,17180,7,6237,13026],"class_list":{"0":"post-28160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-barack","9":"tag-benjamin-j","10":"tag-biden","11":"tag-carney","12":"tag-communist-party-of-china","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-international-relations","15":"tag-joseph-r-jr","16":"tag-mark-j","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-obama","19":"tag-putin","20":"tag-rhodes","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-united-states-international-relations","23":"tag-vladimir-v"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116567538578834183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}