US president fawns about Chinese counterpart’s newly exalted status but experts say it is unlikely to win him favours

Donald Trump has saluted the “extraordinary elevation” of President Xi Jinping and compared him to a “king” on the eve of his trip to meet an exalted and emboldened leader now considered China’s most powerful since Mao.



Xi confirmed his absolute supremacy over China’s one-party state this week with the historic decision to enshrine his political thoughts in the Communist party’s constitution during a congress marking the end of his first term.

Party officials responded by showering adjectives of adulation on the man they say is making their nation great again, hailing Xi’s incisive, glorious, magnificent, visionary, pioneering and thrilling leadership.



Trump – who is scheduled to fly to Beijing on 8 November for a three-day visit – went almost as far on Wednesday. “Spoke to President Xi of China to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation,” the US president tweeted, having refrained from weighing in on Asian affairs during Xi’s politically sensitive summit. “Also discussed NoKo [North Korea] and trade, two very important subjects!”

In a second tweet Trump said he was looking forward to “what will hopefully be a historic trip!”.

Trump continued his charm offensive in an interview with Fox Business Network. “He’s a powerful man,” he told anchor Lou Dobbs. “Now some people might call him the King of China – but he’s called president.”

Experts say Trump wants to butter up Xi before trying to strike a deal over North Korea during his visit.



“It’s classic Trump,” said Paul Haenle, a veteran US diplomat who advised both George W Bush and Barack Obama on China. “Trump’s comments play very well to a Chinese domestic audience. I think ultimately what he is trying to do is preserve that good personal rapport with Xi which he thinks he will be able to do more with from a negotiating standpoint.”

Orville Schell, the head of the Centre on US-China Relations at New York’s Asia Society, said Trump’s tribute showed he was in “hyper-cultivation mode” ahead of his trip to Beijing.



However, Shi Yinhong, a Renmin University international relations expert, said Trump’s blarney would not fool China’s leaders. “He’s a two-faced man … Beijing might be happy about [his flattery]. But they know very well in their hearts [what Trump is like].”



Some had expected Trump to touch down in Beijing touting a grand US-China bargain. Such a deal might have seen Xi agree to help thwart Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for US concessions on issues such as the South China Sea or Taiwan, or its acquiescence on Chinese human rights abuses.



In recent weeks, though, those expectations have faded. Haenle, the head of Beijing’s Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre, predicted Trump would seek only “short-term business deals that can be touted as Trump victories” back home.



Haenle urged the US president to use his 12-day tour of Asia – which also includes stops in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines – to outline a foreign policy vision as bold as the one unveiled by Xi at last week’s 19th Communist party congress.



“Clearly as Trump and his administration are retreating China is stepping in – not in all areas where we leave a void, but in the areas that align with Chinese national interests … The Trump administration is handing [global leadership] to China on a silver platter.



“I hope [Xi’s speech] is a bit of a wake-up call for the Trump administration and that Trump uses his trip out here to put forward an equally ambitious agenda,” Haenle said, adding: “I have to say, I’m not optimistic.”

In a recent interview, Andrew Nathan, a Columbia University expert in Chinese politics and foreign policy, said: “I don’t see Trump having enough coherency to his policy to conceptualise a grand bargain.



“If Trump comes along and says: ‘I’m going to give you Taiwan. I’m going not make any trade sanctions on you. I’m going to give you everything you want. Can I please build a hotel?’ then the Chinese would probably say, ‘That’s fine. We’ll take everything’ … [But] insofar as they would involve China meeting the US halfway, I don’t think the Chinese would feel they needed to do that.”

According to the White House, Trump will spend three days in China as part of his Asian tour. He will take part in “a series of bilateral, commercial, and cultural events” including meetings with Xi.



On Wednesday Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, claimed Trump had built “a much better rapport” with Xi than Obama and would arrive in China seeking “good faith” agreements.

Ross admitted it was unclear how Xi’s lionisation would affect US-China relations. “What we don’t know is now that President Xi has been elevated to practically Mao-type status, will that make it easier to deal with him now that he’s consolidated power or will it make it more difficult … We’ll tell you better after the November visit,” Ross said at an event in New York, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

Experts believe Beijing will role out the reddest of red carpets for Trump in a bid to draw concessions of their own, possibly even offering him a politically valuable trip to the Great Wall. “They’ll be out to turn his head,” said Schell.

Nathan said he expected China to “play to Trump’s ego, sort of like president Macron did” when the US president was in Paris in July.



Ultimately, though, Beijing saw the US president as “a storm to be watched from a distance … I think they are as puzzled as everybody is by Trump.”

Additional reporting by Wang Zhen

