Sep 30, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 18 segments
As Trump becomes the first American president to personally welcome a visiting head of state off a plane since JFK greeted Harold Macmillan in 1962, did his summit with President Xi signal improving…
Rory StewartHost
Alastair CampbellHostHolly, what did we actually learn from the Chinese president's visit to Washington? What was going on beneath the surface, and who do you think came out on top? My vote's on Xi.
So people who thought it was going to be a great breakthrough on AI safety would have been disappointed.
But I think the summit is really important for what it represents about US-China policy, given these are the two most powerful, wealthiest economies in the entire world.
So, uh, basically, as, as everybody I think will have picked up, the US was very, very pro-engagement with China from the moment of the Nixon goes to China, 1970s, right the way through the '80s, '90s, 2000s, China joins the World Trade Organization, right the way through to the middle of Obama.
The idea was that engagement, basically the bet was, would make China, uh, more liberal and a better player in the international order.
And then at the end of Obama, beginning of first Trump, there was a really dramatic change where almost all the China analysts in the US switched from being pro-engagement to suddenly portraying China as the enemy in a new Cold War, and the great consensus emerged, Democrats, Republicans, that, uh, China was the enemy and needed to be kept down.
Who knew? You know, the very Donald Trump who presided over a government that was one of the most hawkish on China, that massively cut all connections with China in the first term, now seems in the second term to be much more friendly towards China than any of the major figures in either the Republican or the Democratic Party.
One of them, uh, let's, let's st- start by suggesting that actually he, he, he comes at this with a, a more strategic and intelligent mindset than we often give him credit for, that he understands that China is in a very, very dominant position in r- in relation to rare earths, that the US military and the US administration are going to need an awful lot of them, not least because he's gonna need them for the Iran war, which shows very little sign of, of slowing down.
But I also think there is another point which he does genuinely seem to have a lot of time for dictators.
We're talking at a time when he seems to think his priorities are to launch yet another attack on Canada, which he'd done recently, and also to comment on the bail conditions that are put upon suspects in anti-terrorist, counter-terrorism cases in the UK at a time when Vladimir Putin has just whacked a load of bombs on a medical facility bang in the middle of Kyiv.
So I think that, you know, there was one extr-- Th- the whole trip, I th- I agree with you, there wasn't much of substance that came out of it, but the, the pageantry and the kind of the, the, the gift to Xi of something that he could sell very, very powerfully back home.
I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time ever- That an American president has been to visit, has been to welcome the visiting head of, head of government or state off the plane since JFK did that for Harold Macmillan at a time when Britain was the great [laughs] was the great power.
And, you know, we said last week that of the two big events on the foreign policy agenda going on last week, UNGA, United Nations General Assembly, was deemed to be less significant than this meeting, and yet very little came out of this meeting.
Now, is that about getting through the midterms? Is that about just him worrying that he's gotta get these rare earth deals sorted out before, uh, before then? Um, and then I think my final point before I go back to you, Rory, is just what was said or was not said about Taiwan, because there were very different readouts.
The Chinese readout of the meeting gave the impression that Trump was inching towards their side in relation to Taiwan.
Holly, what did we actually learn from the Chinese president's visit to Washington? What was going on beneath the surface, and who do you think came out on top? My vote's on Xi.
So people who thought it was going to be a great breakthrough on AI safety would have been disappointed.
But I think the summit is really important for what it represents about US-China policy, given these are the two most powerful, wealthiest economies in the entire world.
So, uh, basically, as, as everybody I think will have picked up, the US was very, very pro-engagement with China from the moment of the Nixon goes to China, 1970s, right the way through the '80s, '90s, 2000s, China joins the World Trade Organization, right the way through to the middle of Obama.
The idea was that engagement, basically the bet was, would make China, uh, more liberal and a better player in the international order.
And then at the end of Obama, beginning of first Trump, there was a really dramatic change where almost all the China analysts in the US switched from being pro-engagement to suddenly portraying China as the enemy in a new Cold War, and the great consensus emerged, Democrats, Republicans, that, uh, China was the enemy and needed to be kept down.
Who knew? You know, the very Donald Trump who presided over a government that was one of the most hawkish on China, that massively cut all connections with China in the first term, now seems in the second term to be much more friendly towards China than any of the major figures in either the Republican or the Democratic Party.
One of them, uh, let's, let's st- start by suggesting that actually he, he, he comes at this with a, a more strategic and intelligent mindset than we often give him credit for, that he understands that China is in a very, very dominant position in r- in relation to rare earths, that the US military and the US administration are going to need an awful lot of them, not least because he's gonna need them for the Iran war, which shows very little sign of, of slowing down.
But I also think there is another point which he does genuinely seem to have a lot of time for dictators.
We're talking at a time when he seems to think his priorities are to launch yet another attack on Canada, which he'd done recently, and also to comment on the bail conditions that are put upon suspects in anti-terrorist, counter-terrorism cases in the UK at a time when Vladimir Putin has just whacked a load of bombs on a medical facility bang in the middle of Kyiv.
So I think that, you know, there was one extr-- Th- the whole trip, I th- I agree with you, there wasn't much of substance that came out of it, but the, the pageantry and the kind of the, the, the gift to Xi of something that he could sell very, very powerfully back home.
I think I'm right in saying that this is the first time ever- That an American president has been to visit, has been to welcome the visiting head of, head of government or state off the plane since JFK did that for Harold Macmillan at a time when Britain was the great [laughs] was the great power.
And, you know, we said last week that of the two big events on the foreign policy agenda going on last week, UNGA, United Nations General Assembly, was deemed to be less significant than this meeting, and yet very little came out of this meeting.
Now, is that about getting through the midterms? Is that about just him worrying that he's gotta get these rare earth deals sorted out before, uh, before then? Um, and then I think my final point before I go back to you, Rory, is just what was said or was not said about Taiwan, because there were very different readouts.
The Chinese readout of the meeting gave the impression that Trump was inching towards their side in relation to Taiwan.
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