The most common reaction — among U.S. observers — to the recent summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping is a sigh of relief. Fears that Trump would make concessions over Taiwan or U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region, like Japan, that damage their interests proved groundless.
Instead, the prevailing conclusion is that the meeting was “a diplomatic nothing burger,” in the words of regional analyst James Crabtree, “plenty of pageantry, but no substance.” If “making nice” was the sum of the summit, then it should be considered a success, and not just for having avoided the worst-case outcome. Unfortunately, there may be negative consequences after all.
You have to squint to find actual deliverables from the meeting. The two men agreed to extend their trade truce for just two months and enact reciprocal tariff cuts on $60 billion in exports, or $30 billion apiece. Most of those are anticipated to be on agricultural goods.
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