Obama, Xi set to build rapport at retreat
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his United States counterpart Barack Obama are set to hold their first-ever retreat next month in California, in an effort to build personal ties.
The meeting, announced by both governments last week, is taking place earlier than expected, reflecting a mutual sense of urgency to tackle both global and bilateral issues dogging the Sino-US relationship, say observers.
Xi and Obama were not expected to meet until September at the summit of the Group of 20 large economies, in Russia. Chinese officials had also planned for Obama to visit China late this year or early next year. Instead, both will meet from June 7 to 8 in Rancho Mirage, California, following Xi’s state visits to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico.
It will be Xi’s second foreign trip since he assumed the presidency in March and visited Russia and four African countries that month.
Singapore-based analyst Li Mingjiang said the retreat was likely a Chinese initiative, given that Xi would be visiting the nearby Central America region.
“But it is also strategic thinking on China’s part for both leaders to meet earlier so as to prevent any unfortunate events from escalating and disrupting their ties,” said Dr Li of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Observers also say the informal arrangement of Xi’s trip is clearly aimed at building personal rapport between both leaders.
This will be Xi’s second trip to the US in slightly over a year, following his official visit as vice-president in February last year, ahead of China’s once-a-decade power transfer last November that installed him as the Communist Party chief.
The usual protocol would see Xi making a state visit and a stop in Washington DC, said Renmin University’s Sino-US expert Jin Canrong, who believes that the more relaxed retreat setting would be conducive for in-depth discussion of key issues and for both presidents to build rapport.
He added: “Higher trust and political good-will between both leaders will help keep the bilateral ties stable and also build strategic trust between both countries.”
In a statement, the White House said the two presidents will “review progress and challenges in US-China relations over the past four years and discuss ways to enhance cooperation, while constructively managing our differences, in the years ahead”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the meeting would be “important to the long-term, sound and steady development of China-US relations, as well as regional and international peace, stability and prosperity”.
Dr Li believes top issues at the retreat could include Washington’s desire for Beijing to play a more active role in restraining North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Another could be the territorial spats in the South China and East China seas, involving China and US allies like the Philippines and Japan. China prefers to deal with the disputes bilaterally and has been irked by the US’s support of other claimant-states’ calls for multilateral talks.
