US President Donald Trump reached Beijing on Wednesday. Here he will talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping on important issues like Iran war, trade and sale of American arms to Taiwan.
The summit will take place on Thursday, when the two leaders will hold bilateral talks and attend a formal dinner. But, after ‘Air Force One’ landed in the Chinese capital, China gave Trump a grand welcome.
According to the White House, the president was welcomed by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, China’s Ambassador to Washington Shi Feng, Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu and US Ambassador to Beijing David Perdue. The welcoming ceremony included approximately 300 Chinese youth, a military honor guard and a military band.
However, one question that is running in everyone’s mind is why President Xi Jinping did not reach the airport to welcome Trump. Whereas, Jinping himself had arrived to receive former President Barack Obama.
What is the reason?
Actually the reason for this lies in China’s protocol. According to Chinese protocol, the President of China himself does not go to the airport to welcome any guest. The guests are always welcomed by the Chinese Vice President. Be it Russian President Vladimir Putin or North Korean dictator Kim Jong, the Chinese President has not yet welcomed any foreign guest at the airport.
Then the question is why Xi Jinping had come to welcome Barack Obama. Actually, at that time Xi Jinping was the Vice President of China. According to protocol, it is the Vice President who welcomes the guests. Therefore, Jinping himself reached the airport to welcome Obama.
What does Trump want from China?
The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of creating a ‘Board of Trade’ with China so that differences between the two countries can be resolved. The board could help prevent a trade war that started after Trump raised tariffs last year; China responded to this move by using its control over rare earth minerals. Due to this, there was a ceasefire for one year in October last year.
But Trump is visiting Beijing at a time when the Iran issue dominates his domestic agenda. Due to this war, the ‘Strait of Hormuz’ (Strait of Hormuz) has almost been closed, due to which oil and natural gas tankers are stuck there and energy prices have increased so much that they can harm global economic growth. The US President said that Xi (Jinping)’s help is not needed in resolving this conflict, although Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.
“We have a lot of things to discuss. Frankly, I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, because Iran is completely under our control,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
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