By Philip Yeung
The much-hyped, twice-postponed and high-stakes visit by Trump to China has produced no releasable major breakthroughs—though alcohol-averse Trump's taking a sip of wine in toasting China is a symbolic breakthrough.
But below the surface, something is stirring. Iran is not a subject that can be easily wrestled at a summit. Away from the cameras, China may yet tip the scales towards peace.
The tone and tenor of Trump's message are all China-positive. Hailing this summit as a historic moment, Trump heaped praise on China and its leader. Gone is the harsh, cold war rhetoric. Like King Charles, Trump cited history as a bond that connected the two superpowers. Good relationship between them will translate into mutual prosperity.
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, is still trapped in his toxic zero-sum mentality, that China's gain is America's loss, still stuck in that ancient Greek historian's Thucydides Trap that dooms a rising power and a prevailing one to inevitable war. He continues to peddle an outdated America-centric universe with other countries orbiting around it, when we have seen the awful bloody mess that this has created, year after year, decade after decade, region after region. It has become humanity's curse.
Clinton is wrong to say that Trump has failed as a summiteer. China, after all, holds the promise as a peacemaker, with the US and Iran locked in a stalemate that is unbreakable without a trusty outside guarantor. Melting cold-war mistrust was beyond Clinton's capability. That's why he remains forever a flawed, small-minded, second-rate president.
This visit, bracketed by the Ukraine and Iran wars, and the economic pain brought by both conflicts, came as a welcome distraction for Trump, complete with pomp and pageantry, amid the glum news from the war fronts.
In words, if not in deeds, Trump may be ushering in a new era of peaceful co-prosperity.
On Taiwan, Trump becomes the first US president to warn the island against the dangers of separatism. This should silence the battle-cry of Japan's war-like prime minister Takaichi--a major breakthrough in US thinking on Taiwan. Trump's personal friendship with President Xi is bearing fruit for peace in the Pacific. The US doesn't need another war in another region.
Who's on board Air Force One might tell us more about the purpose of this trip. America's who's who in business and government are almost all here, including the Treasury Secretary, the Secretary of War, and most interestingly, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Rubio's inclusion in Trump's visit speaks volumes about the importance of the China relationship. You must remember that this is a politician who has been twice sanctioned by China for his mad-dog outbursts against his current host and for tabling anti-China legislation in the Senate, falsely accusing China of human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, while stoking separatism in Taiwan—crossing China's redlines multiple times.
Rubio is of Cuban origin. His view of communism is colored by his ancestral country. He doesn't know that not all communism is alike, that the Chinese brand has its unique and creative characteristics. He bowed to his own twisted,fact-free logic, and simply equated the China and Cuba models. Big mistake.
This is the same mistake Lithuania makes, naively transferring their fear of Russia to China, getting themselves needlessly entangled over far-away and none-of-your-business Taiwan. These misconceptions, born of ignorance, are instantly curable. Lithuanians, too, should come for a visit.
Being in Beijing is a sobering experience for Rubio, who behaved like a gleeful, rubber-necking tourist, dazzled by China's modernity. Rubio's black-and-white bias against China appears gone for good, especially when Trump himself is gushing over the country and its leader.
Hawkish Hegseth and the hostile Treasury Secretary may also be having their own "eureka" moment on China.
What happened on the sidelines of the summit is pregnant with meaning. Elon Musk, who has visited China multiple times, behaved like he has come home, nibbling food before it was served and taking his toddler to a tech tycoon meeting. The world's first future trillionaire calls himself China's no. 1 fan and acts like China's adopted son. It's good to have this super-influencer in China's corner. Jensen Huang of Nvidia has won legions of Chinese fans slurping noodles outside a Beijing restaurant.
A Fox News media executive recalled that 30 years ago, he saw a backward country of rickety bicycles. He was stunned that today, it is swarming with sleek high-tech electric cars. While America slept, China has been busy reinventing itself.
For the first time, for millions of Americans, China appears human and warmly relatable. Even huggable. Trump can take the credit for this atmospheric change.
This time, there is a warm undercurrent of genuine intercultural understanding. Seeing is believing. Being a curious tourist beats being a fire-breathing propagandist for solving the China puzzle.
This mental reset could be the unspoken breakthrough of Trump's visit, marking the return of rationality to the US-China relationship.
Hot on the heels of Trump's visit, Putin, too, is on his way to Beijing. In a matter of months, a whole host of leaders of major countries have come calling at the Chinese capital---from France, Canada, Britain to Germany. They suddenly wake up to the simple truth that global peace and economic prosperity cannot be restored without China---the only major power at peace and governed to purpose.
This is shaping up to be Chinese diplomacy's golden age, a stark contrast to its hundred-year humiliation when foreign powers converged on China to dismember the country.
China is opening itself up to visa-free travel. There is no cheaper cure for China-phobic bias than a first-hand experience of this hospitable country. Call it people or tourism diplomacy, on China scale and in China style.
One picture of a rubber-necking and jaw-dropping Marco Rubio, a notorious China hawk, works more magic than a thousand words from China's own self-validation.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews. You can also contact the author via email at PKY480@gmail.com.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | From 'whiff whaff' to 'ping pong'---how China table tennis conquers the world
Opinion | How King Charles's speech conquers the US Congress—viewed from China by a speechwriter
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