When U.S. President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, their summit will be marked not only by deep policy divisions but a clash of personalities between America’s brash “tweeter-in-chief” and Beijing’s cautious, calculating leader.
Topping the agenda at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida will be whether he will make good on his threat to use crucial U.S.-China trade ties to pressure Beijing to do more to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea, which is working to develop missiles capable of hitting the United States.
Trump, a 70-year-old former real estate magnate with no foreign policy experience before entering the White House, has tweeted that it will be a "very difficult” meeting with the veteran Communist Party leader seven years his junior, given Chinese trade practices he says are killing U.S. jobs.
He has also demanded that Beijing do more to “solve” the North Korean problem – his biggest national security challenge - or he will act alone to deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
This summit should offer a study in contrasts: Trump impatient, outspoken and prone to angry tweet-storms; Xi, outwardly calm and measured, with no known social media presence.
Reference: Reuters
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