The highly anticipated meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Donald Trump is the first face-to-face between the two leaders since Trump’s return to office and the launch of the American president’s expanded trade and tech war on China.
But the last time the two leaders met in 2019, they were also locked in a similar confrontation. Trump had launched tariffs on a huge swath of Chinese imports to the US, and was waging a campaign to keep Chinese telecoms giant Huawei out of Western networks.
Then, trade negotiations had been paused for weeks when Xi and Trump met on the sidelines of the G20 in Osaka, Japan and agreed to restart talks.
And despite the president campaigning on being tough on China, Trump’s first year in office in 2017 – prior to an escalation of trade tensions – saw significant diplomacy between the two.
During a November state visit to China that year, Trump became the first foreign leader in the People’s Republic of China’s 70-year history to have an official dinner in Beijing’s Forbidden City imperial palace complex.
Trump was clearly impressed, effusively thanking Xi on Twitter for “an unforgettable afternoon and evening at the Forbidden City in Beijing,” and also hailing their “very good chemistry” in an address at the end of the trip.
Earlier that year, the two met for the first time at Trump’s private residence in Mar-a-Lago, a meeting after which Trump infamously said that he informed Xi that he had just authorized air strikes on Syria as they ate chocolate cake at his oceanside club.
The US president has repeatedly praised Xi, throughout his time in office and on the campaign trial, and said he respects the Chinese leader, including for his “iron fist.”