re <<breakthrough>>
... let's see if the trump can walk the talk and do the Nixon thing and join the Putin-Xi club and wear big boyz pants
scmp.com
Trump meets TikTok CEO after saying China, US can ‘solve all world’s problems’
Updated: 11:24am, 17 Dec 2024
President-elect said the two countries can work together when pressed about his invitation to the Chinese leader to attend inauguration
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that Beijing and Washington could work together “to solve all of the problems of the world”, a sweeping statement issued a little more than a month before he returns to office.
Hours after making the remarks in a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump met TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi at the Florida resort, according to US media reports.
The meeting coincided with the company’s emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court for a temporary halt on the ban, which would take effect if it fails to secure a non-Chinese buyer on January 19, a day before Trump officially takes the White House.
Earlier in the day, Trump signalled during a news conference that he was willing to block the ban on TikTok, which has more than 170 million domestic monthly users on its platform in the US.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok. TikTok had an impact, so we’re taking a look at it”, he said, hailing the platform for boosting his connection with young American voters during the campaign.
Both Trump and the social media platform kept the meeting low-key, with neither side confirming the meeting, nor issuing any statement on what was discussed. Media reports from the US said it was not clear what the two men talked about.
Experts have said that Trump has limited options when it comes to saving TikTok from the ban.
The meeting followed Trump’s hopeful remarks about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s response to his invitation to attend the January 20 presidential inauguration. During his press conference at Mar-a-Lago ahead of the TikTok meeting, Trump said Xi “hasn’t said one way or the other” about whether he will attend.
The issue was “something we barely discussed”, Trump said, adding that he has had “some very good conversations” with the Chinese leader through letters.
“You know, because China and the United States can, together solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it. So it’s very important. And you know, he was a friend of mine”, Trump added.
Chinese leader Xi tells US President Biden he is ‘ready to work’ with Donald Trump
Reflecting on the meeting the two men had at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, Trump said: “He was here for a long time, right in that spot, except sitting in a very comfortable chair. He wasn’t standing like you are. But we spent hours and hours talking, and he’s an amazing guy”.
Trump’s latest Beijing-friendly comments inject more mystery into the approach he will take when he is back in the White House next month, as they send different signals compared with the incoming president’s cabinet picks like Florida Senator Marco Rubio – one of Congress’ harshest critics of the Chinese government – for secretary of state.
According to Jake Werner, acting East Asia director of the Quincy Institute, a think tank in Washington, Trump’s latest comments “signal a real openness to doing some sort of deal” with Xi.
“While many of Trump’s national security appointments seemed to promise an immediate, sharp deterioration in US-China relations, Trump’s comments, and his decision to extend Xi an invitation to his inauguration, indicates that we have a genuine opportunity to build the relationship on a new foundation”, Werner added.
On Sunday, Florida lawmaker Mike Waltz, who will be Trump’s national security adviser in the White House, in an interview with CBS downplayed the invitation to Xi, saying the ongoing conversations between Trump and other world leaders were “really nothing beyond congratulatory and niceties”.
No Chinese head of state has ever attended a presidential inauguration in the US. Such a move would be a departure from a decades-long tradition whereby the White House includes foreign dignitaries and diplomats at the ceremony, but not world leaders.
Some analysts have expressed doubt that Xi would attend the inauguration, pointing out hat the diplomatic groundwork for such a visit would likely require more than the five weeks remaining before the president-elect is sworn in.
Denis Simon of the Institute for China-America Studies, another Washington-based think tank, said it has “more or less been determined that Xi is not coming, and the only question will be, ‘Who would come?’”.
US Republican Senator Marco Rubio, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, speaking to reporters in Washington last week. Photo: Getty Images
Describing Trump as a “deal maker”, Simon reckoned that by inviting Xi, the US president-elect wants to be “seen as some kind of grand statesman” with a knack for personal diplomacy, and added that Beijing might be inclined to send a high-level delegation.
“I really do think Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize win. I think that’s his aim here. So I think that this grand statesman status, if he can work with Xi, and then Xi can work with Putin and all of a sudden we can find peace in several areas, I think that would be Trump’s dream”, the long-time China scholar contended.
Earlier this month, Trump had suggested that China could play a key role in brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting,” Trump said in a social media post on December 9.
In an interview aired later that day Trump told NBC that he “got along very well” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that the two leaders had “communication as recently as this week”.
At the time, the Chinese embassy in Washington declined to comment on any recent communication between Xi and Trump, saying only that Beijing “welcomes and supports all effort conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis”.
Werner of the Quincy Institute noted that “China would not be willing to do a one-sided deal”.
“Trump would need to begin by offering a stable trade environment and clarity on what realms of exchange are off-limits and enter negotiations on China’s core complaints around security and space for economic development”, he added. |
