"What’s striking to me about the public remarks is just how effusive President Trump was in calling the chairman of the Communist Party of China, dictator and autocrat, his friend.' He just kept using the phrase, friend, friend, friend. He's a great leader, great leader, great leader.' Chairman Xi Jinping said nothing reciprocal to President Trump, to the best of my mind, and lest I missed it, I never heard him call the president his friend.' I never heard him call a great leader.' And that asymmetry, I think, is striking."
"Well, to figure out what happened in private, we're going to have to get better readouts than we have so far to date. They're just pretty pablum. They're very stock phrases. Nothing new in my mind, either from president Xi or President Trump, McFaul said."
"It's a historic reference about a great power being threatened by the rise of another. Trump struck a bit more of a public, at least cordial, flattering tone in his comments. What do you make of the posture, both in private and in public, of these two leaders? And how should we be reading all of this? Reshef asked McFaul."
"I think that's a position of weakness, frankly, from the president. It's not necessary. You have to meet with Xi Jinping and manage the relationship. And I think that's the way this summit will be remembered. A kind of nonevent, right? There's not going to be any breakthrough moments. But this asymmetry of praise is striking to me. Unprecedented, I would say, McFaul added."
Trump heaped extensive praise on Xi Jinping during a two-day summit, using the term “friend” repeatedly and calling him a great leader. Xi Jinping expressed hope that the two countries could avoid the “Thucydides Trap,” a historical reference to a great power being threatened by the rise of another. Xi’s public remarks did not include reciprocal language toward Trump, and no comparable praise for Trump was heard. The contrast in tone was viewed as striking and unprecedented, with the imbalance interpreted as a position of weakness. The summit was characterized as lacking breakthrough moments and functioning more as a nonevent, with limited meaningful new information in the public readouts.
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