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US-China relations
OpinionComment

How US President Donald Trump’s visit to China can make both nations great again

Andrew Leung says major issues, from North Korea to trade and maritime rights, will be at stake when Trump visits China. But, above all, it will be an opportunity for the two powers to recalibrate their relationship and define the new world order

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Andrew Leung says major issues, from North Korea to trade and maritime rights, will be at stake when Trump visits China. But, above all, it will be an opportunity for the two powers to recalibrate their relationship and define the new world order
Andrew Leung
Donald Trump’s visit to China can forge a new productive relationship. Illustration: Craig Stephens
Donald Trump’s visit to China can forge a new productive relationship. Illustration: Craig Stephens
For US President Donald Trump’s upcoming China visit, weighty issues are at stake. A new leadership team under President Xi Jinping will be unveiled at the 19th Party Congress next month. The stage is set to redefine an increasingly testy US-China relationship. Finding out how to ­unspring the “Thucydides trap” ­demands more concrete action than academic debate.
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Long before Xi’s presidency, a Chinese state-sponsored 12-part TV documentary analysed the whys and wherefores of the Rise of the Great Powers during the past five centuries. Xi’s “Chinese dream” of global renaissance shows his ambitious China seems increasingly confident of its “great power” stature.
In his new book, Destined for War, Harvard scholar Graham Allison describes how seemingly ­unstoppable China’s rise has been, including its economic clout, infrastructure, wealth accumulation, consumer power, university graduate output, hi-tech manufacturing, research and development, quantum computing and geo-economic connectivity.

Graham Allison on China, US and the Thucydides trap

According to the Composite ­Index of National Capability, China is already in some respects the most powerful nation. Clearly, the world’s two most powerful countries, both wanting to become “great again”, need to ­recalibrate their relationship if a vicious spiral of conflict is to be avoided.

Trump’s China visit will help avoid trade war, currency war: Chinese ambassador

But what concrete results can be achieved in one visit? The following may offer some clues.

First, presidents Xi and Trump may jointly deliver on the North Korean crisis. Sanctions alone won’t deter Kim Jong-un from ­acquiring a regime-survival nuclear insurance policy. But any military option risks a leap into an unknown abyss. It’s now high time for Trump to talk face to face with Kim. The aim should be a Korean peninsula peace treaty involving South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. To anchor long-term stability, it should contain provisions to help North Korea’s economic reform.

Trump pulls punches with China by avoiding criticism over North Korea nuclear crisis in UN speech

Xi may help to broker a deal ­behind the scenes. When a draft agreement is ready, the Trump-Kim meeting could take place in Beijing, before the signing of the final treaty.

Xi Jinping urged restraint in call with Donald Trump: state TV

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