Trump eyes China deal, but dragging out talks risks backlash, warns former diplomat
US President Donald Trump (left) has announced that his high-stakes visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) has been rescheduled for mid-May.
Photo: AP US President Donald Trump is expected to aim for an “economic deal” with China when he is in Beijing, according to a former senior diplomat who served under the American leader during his first term.
However if Beijing were to drag out trade negotiations with Washington for too long, it could risk Trump taking a much tougher turn against China, warned Stephen Biegun, who served as US deputy secretary of state from 2019 to 2021. “The president wants a deal, an economic deal, specifically,” he said on Wednesday during an event in Melbourne held by the Australian think tank, the Lowy Institute, when asked what Trump hoped to achieve from his delayed China trip. “The only thing that … is debatable is whether the Chinese give it to him all at once or portion it out over the next three years to keep the negotiation going, to keep the United States tied in this engagement,” he added.
Stephen Biegun is a former senior diplomat who served as US deputy secretary of state from 2019 to 2021.
Photo: AP Biegun’s comment came hours before Trump announced that his high-stakes visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping had been rescheduled to take place on May 14 and 15.
Washington initially said the trip was scheduled for March 31 to April 2, but Beijing did not issue an official confirmation.
Trump then said it was postponed as the war on Iran took priority, while the Chinese government stated the two sides were still discussing the trip.
Asked whether the Xi-Trump summit depended on the end of the US-Israel war on Iran, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that the two leaders had discussed rescheduling.
She added that the Chinese leader understood it was “very important” for the president to stay in the US “throughout these combat operations”.
In an effort to set the stage for the long-awaited meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, China and the US concluded their sixth round of trade talks in Paris last week.
Both sides agreed to “continue to maintain the stability of tariffs” and discussed the possibility of establishing a mechanism for promoting bilateral trade and investment, according to Li Chenggang, Chinese commerce vice-minister and one of Beijing’s lead negotiators in the two-day talks.
Speaking at the Lowy event, Biegu
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