00:00A nothing burger or a strategic nothing burger?
00:03Here's what happened and what hasn't happened when Trump met Xi.
00:08For China, the optics of this meeting were very important.
00:12It was important for Beijing that Xi have an official state visit with all of the pomp and circumstance
00:19in their view that he had accorded President Trump when he visited in May.
00:24And so there was a lot of discussion about the choreography of this meeting,
00:28the 21-gun salute.
00:31That's been a controversial point within Trump's own party.
00:35Some Republicans have criticized this visit.
00:38But it was very important for China as a demonstration
00:41that the United States is treating China and this relationship as an equal.
00:45We've been dealing very nicely with China, as you probably have heard.
00:48Headed into this, the two sides had agreed to sort of extend the trade truce into January.
00:54That's a couple more months and a lot will be happening then, between then and now.
00:59We have the U.S. midterm elections.
01:03They'll come back towards the end of the year and that deadline to see if this can be extended.
01:10You know, it's also the expiration of an extension really of a freer trade,
01:18but not free trade in the rare earths minerals that China dominates.
01:23That's been China's chokehold and its most important strategic leverage in these trade negotiations.
01:28So between now and January, there will be a lot happening.
01:32And we'll be looking to see if, you know, if this truce can be extended,
01:37if it can be deepened with any kind of new arrangement,
01:39or whether, you know, we're headed again back towards the brink.
01:44But we do know from the Chinese side that they say that they pressed Trump on Taiwan.
01:53That's at the core of their interests, as they repeatedly remind the Americans.
01:59And what they would like to see, what they've been pushing for,
02:03is for the U.S. to change its official position on Taiwan.
02:07It sounds like a nuance, but it's a distinction with a difference for China.
02:11They would like the U.S. to oppose Taiwanese independence,
02:16taking a more active stance against that,
02:21rather than the neutral and undefined position,
02:26which has been at the core of U.S. policy.
02:30Generally, China views U.S. arms sales to Taiwan as a provocation.
02:36There has been pressure on the White House, on Trump to slow or stop those deliveries.
02:43There's a strong sort of political and policy interest in the United States that is pushing against that.
02:55Trump has steered the relationship with China, you know, toward one that he says is based on his friendship with
03:05Xi.
03:06He's accorded Xi a lot of respect and deference, both at this meeting and in his visit in Beijing in
03:15May.
03:16And, you know, that's a real contrast with harder line views within the Republican Party in the U.S.
03:22We really don't hear from Xi Jinping except through state media and what you can see
03:27and sort of extrapolate in a limited way from the body language of these visits.
03:33But I would say in the May visit, Trump was fulsome with his praise of Xi.
03:47That really wasn't reciprocated, not in anything that we could see.
03:51And, you know, again, I think that presents Xi here in a position of strength.
03:57It may be a nothing burger, but from China's perspective, it's a strategic nothing burger.
04:01I think this counts as a win for Xi Jinping.
04:06China headed into this, you know, wanted this display of they wanted a state visit.
04:14You know, they wanted, you know, the whole pomp and circumstance.
04:18And, you know, they got that.
04:20The optics are important and they see that as a show of respect and an implicit acceptance of China's role
04:29as an equal partner in this relationship.
