President Donald Trump is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Sept. 24 for high-level talks on trade, technology and regional security, in Xi's first White House visit in a decade and following Trump's trip to Beijing in May.
Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, says the United States enters next week's meeting with less leverage than it had earlier this year.
Carlson says: “Trump and his advisors are approaching this visit as if America won the last round in Beijing and will win again. It did not. Nothing of substance came out of Beijing, and the United States has less leverage now than it had in the spring.
“As the war with Iran has ground on, munitions have been expended faster than they can be replaced. China still holds the rare earths that are now needed more than before to replace them.
“Xi, meanwhile, has just completed his most extensive trip abroad since before the pandemic, pitching China as the stable alternative to an erratic America.
“The arms package for Taiwan remains in limbo. Trump has admitted discussing it with Xi, and in Washington next week Beijing will want more. Of everything likely to be on the table, that is what is most at risk.
“A president who is negotiating from weakness but believes he is strong, just 40 days before an election his party could very well lose, is a dangerous thing. Who knows what deals he may be willing to make to declare himself a winner?”
