As a reminder, US president Trump is scheduled to make a visit to China from 31 March to 2 April. Beijing has not officially confirmed the dates but it seems like the visit will still take place regardless. After all, it’s now a case of Trump needing to do so or risk losing face. That especially after the US Supreme Court shot down his tariffs, which now gives China more leverage on their end.
Top officials from both sides met in Paris over the weekend, with reports suggesting that talks were “remarkably stable” and that they were “candid and constructive”.
With Trump and Xi set to meet for the first time since October last year, both sides will want to lay out more “progress” on both trade and economic ties surely. But as mentioned before, all of this is going to be for show more than anything else. It’s all about putting on an act and performing the necessary theatrics in telling a story to the world.
On the Chinese side, it seems that they will continue to promise to step up purchases of US agricultural goods. However, we all know that this has been a lie and a strategy that they’ve been using time and time again to try and appease US lawmakers since 2018 already. Remember the whole Phase One trade deal? Yeah, I wouldn’t blame anyone for forgetting about that as it has become irrelevant at this stage.
Some added gestures of goodwill are also likely to follow from both sides. Either way, all of this will just be formulated in a way to let Trump boast and take home a “win” in his books at least. But in actuality, this whole thing will just be an act and the status quo between both sides will very much remain as it has been since last year.
