Within days, two high-profile Chinese visitors will arrive in the US – envoys of friendship, as Xi Jinping described them when he met Donald Trump at the White House this week. The giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will be hosted at Atlanta zoo. Beijing dispatched the first panda pair to the US in 1972 following President Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China. It uses the animals to indicate satisfaction or displeasure with other nations. But it also charges heftily for their lease: reportedly, around $1m a year per pair. Americans’ views of China have warmed from a pandemic nadir, but are unlikely to be shifted much by two animals, however charming. These days they are more of a token gesture than a striking symbol.
It is telling that the announcement was one of the main takeaways of Mr Xi’s visit to Washington. Expectations were low after May’s stalemate summit in Beijing, but this meeting still struggled to meet them. The US president gave Mr Xi a lavish welcome – unusually, travelling to meet the “strong, vibrant and fit” Chinese leader off the plane. He insisted that they had “never gotten along better”.
In a sense that is not surprising. Mr Trump admires and envies authoritarians with untrammelled powers. Chinese state media were welcome at the White House, unlike CNN, MS Now and Politico. Since he rarely pays even lip service to human rights, the treatment of Uyghurs or jailed Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong – facing another lengthy sentence for his international advocacy – were never likely to figure large, whatever the hopes of protesters outside.
Mr Trump told Mr Xi that any Chinese help for Iran is unacceptable; Mr Xi said that the US should adhere to the “correct position” of opposing Taiwanese independence. Beijing wants Washington to shift from the long-held stance of “not supporting” it. That would be a grave mistake, but Mr Trump has given worryingly mixed messages on Taiwan.
It is striking how little of consequence has emerged from the summit given that this is arguably the most consequential diplomatic relationship in the world. A two-month extension of the trade war truce was announced as Mr Xi arrived in the US. China’s curb of rare earth exports has checked Mr Trump’s appetite for an economic offensive; Beijing is anxious about its struggling economy. But if they are more wary of the fallout, they are also more fearful of the other side gaining ground. AI is central to this battle. Mr Trump has resisted all calls to restrain development because “Whoever wins AI, wins.” Mr Xi said it had to be managed responsibly, but Beijing has attacked “threat narratives”, fearing that the US wants to prevent it catching up.
CNN last week highlighted the dangers: the US military reportedly prepared to intercept a Chinese ship in the Middle East after an intelligence report said it was carrying nuclear weapons components – only for officials to realise that the partially AI-generated analysis had misidentified the cargo. Controls on development are desperately needed, but neither side is willing to accept them. Even the limited AI dialogue and “notification hotline” for AI safety proposed by Scott Bessent, treasury secretary, seem to be rather less than meets the eye. This summit should be viewed with alarm not because it saw substantive developments – but because it illustrates the dangers of drift.
