By Zhang Guoxi
It’s a tough time for a Chinese president to visit America. What can Xi accomplish?
Even by Chinese standards, the kind of attention that has been accorded to President Xi Jinping’s coming visit to America is unusual. Preparation for the trip had begun in earnest as early as February when it was first announced. Since then Chinese officials, diplomats, and scholars have spared no effort to promote the visit’s significance and potential success.
In a meeting with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, who flew to Beijing in August in preparation for Xi’s trip, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the visit as one that would determine the future direction of China-U.S. relations and influence the international and regional situation.
During a joint interview to CCTV News and China Daily last week, State Councilor Yang Jiechi expressed confidence that “substantive results” will come out of the Xi-Obama summit. Expectations are so high, at least on the Chinese side, that some analysts believe Xi’s visit will be as consequential as Deng Xiaoping’s American tour in 1979, a trip that, according to Ezra Vogel, “launch[ed] a new era in [China’s] relations with the United States.”
Although Xi is often touted as the most powerful and charismatic Chinese leader since Deng, it seems unlikely that his visit will generate a similar momentum in driving the world’s most important bilateral relationship forward. When Deng made his highly publicized visit to America over 35 years ago, changes in both countries’ international and domestic contexts converged to create new opportunities for China and America to reframe their relationship in more practical and positive terms.
Read the full story at The Diplomat