Xi met with Trump, then Putin. What did the meetings reveal?

Peking duck, Chinese opera and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake: such was Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s grand welcome for his “old friend”, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Not seeing you one day is like being apart for three autumns,” Putin told Xi, a saying taken from one of China’s oldest poetry collections, during their meeting in Beijing.

The friendly exchange took place at the Great Hall of the People, an imposing building on Tiananmen Square that houses China’s legislature, in the same location. where US President Donald Trump was less than a week ago.

The timing of these back-to-back meetings could be a coincidence, since Trump postponed a previous summit in March to stay in the United States during the Iran war.

The symbolism behind them is no coincidence, however.

“These two visits reveal a deeper structural shift in global politics,” Alexander Korolev, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at UNSW Sydney, told SBS News.

“China, I think, is increasingly becoming the central node…We can call it a big inverted triangle, or we can probably call it a big triangle with Chinese characteristics.

“During the Cold War, the United States was the apex of the great triangle, but today it is inverted and China is at the apex of the triangle,” he said.

“It’s not that China is trying to pit Washington and Moscow against each other, but it is increasingly positioning itself as the center of the system, the place where great power diplomacy must take place.”

Meeting of two old friends

Putin’s meeting with Xi did not go entirely as the Russians likely hoped, as he failed to secure a deal for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which will transport gas from Siberia to China if it goes ahead.

Russian officials said the two sides had reached a “general agreement on the parameters” of the project.

The leaders also issued a joint statement, outlining their plans to expand collaboration in various areas, from artificial intelligence to the conservation of rare species such as tigers, leopards and pandas.

Edward Chan, a postdoctoral researcher in Chinese studies at the Australian National University, said the meeting “is likely to highlight the continuity of Sino-Russian relations.”

“Xi wanted to remain committed to his partnership with Putin. This was reflected in the joint statement, which continued to emphasize the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia,” he told SBS News.

“In this sense, the meeting was seen more as a reaffirmation of Sino-Russian relations in the context of a stabilized great power relationship between the United States and China.”

Xi and Putin also criticized Trump’s Golden Dome missile shield, a space-based missile interception system.

How do the Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump summits differ?

The criticism came nearly a week after Trump described Xi as a “great leader” and said it was an “honor” to be his friend when the two leaders met.

This meeting, however, went differently. Xi’s public remarks were widely interpreted as less positive than Trump’s, with the Chinese leader expressing hope that the United States and China could avoid conflict and be “partners rather than rivals.”

Chan said the summit “seemed to confirm a relatively positive personal relationship between the two leaders, not necessarily the bilateral relationship.”

“This suggests, at least in the short term, that great power competition will be managed through stabilization, even if the underlying strategic rivalry remains unchanged,” he said.

The meeting that Trump billed as perhaps the “largest summit ever” ended without joint statements, news conferences or formal agreements.

David Smith, associate professor at the Center for American Studies at the University of Sydney, told SBS News: “There hasn’t really been much in terms of trade deals between China and the United States. Trump talks about agreements, but they were nothing really significant. »

During the meeting, Xi even raised “the Taiwan issue,” according to Chinese state media, warning: “If handled properly, the bilateral relationship will experience overall stability.” If it is poorly managed, the two countries will collide, even clash.”

Korolev said the “dynamics of the meetings” were different.

“Putin came to visit his old friend. There was a lot more conviviality,” he said.

“There’s a higher level of trust, and it’s kind of a comfortable, non-threatening environment.

“The situation with Trump is very different. Xi Jinping was very distant, right from the handshake, and maintained dominant body language throughout the meeting and that kind of rhetoric. [that] bordering on direct threats. »

During the Trump-Xi meeting, the Chinese leader asked whether the two countries could “overcome the Thucydides trap” – a foreign policy concept that describes how emerging powers threatening to replace established ones often lead to war.

The same question was framed differently at the Xi-Putin summit, with countries pleading in their declaration for a “multipolar” world.

“China and Russia have been trying to promote it for at least a decade. What that means in the current context is actually that the United States, or even more broadly the West, should not be the only kind of power pole,” Korolev said.

“For China, it’s more about being on an equal footing with the United States. For Russia, it’s more about seeing Russia become a full member of international communities.”

“Towards” a new world

Xi’s meetings with the U.S. and Russian presidents came as both countries are engaged in wars: the United States against Iran and Russia against Ukraine.

Reuters reported that Chinese armed forces secretly trained around 200 Russian servicemen in China late last year, with some of them returning to take part in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

China has said it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator, the same role it claims it wants to play for the war in the Middle East.

“I think China, so far, has been quite reluctant to play a mediating role in Ukraine. [while] this was prompted by many in the West to intervene, giving Beijing significant influence over Moscow,” Korolev said.

“The situation in the Middle East might be different because it directly affects Beijing’s energy security, and here Beijing might be more willing to play a mediating role.

“But again, we don’t see a very proactive initiative that would indicate that China wants to play that role.”

While some experts say China is unlikely to play a mediating role in global conflicts, Smith believes Trump and Putin’s back-to-back visits to the Great Hall of the People within days of each other could signal a shift in the world order.

“This idea of ​​a multipolar world is an idea that we are moving towards, whether people accept it or not,” he said.

“I don’t think in relative terms any power can be as dominant as the United States was in the post-war 20th century. So I think we’re moving toward a much more multipolar world.”

— With additional reporting from Reuters.

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