by Xinhua writer Liu Chen
BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to meet his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, for the first time next week, an arrangement that has surprised many who did not expect it to come so soon.
Yet experts on international relations have pointed out the meeting is not that unexpected, and it shows the desire of both sides to engage in top-level dialogue.
"It is actually a good thing that Trump and Xi are meeting early in Trump's term as they will get to know each other, so there will be fewer incorrect assumptions about each other's intentions," David Denoon, a professor of politics and economics and director of the New York University Center on U.S.-China Relations, told Xinhua.
In the eyes of David Gosset, a renowned French scholar on international relations, "the very fact that the Xi-Trump meeting is taking place in the first 100 days of the new American administration indicates that both sides have realized that coordination and cooperation between the two are indispensable."
Yuan Peng, a research fellow with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), stressed that "there is no channel of communication more vital than face-to-face talks" at the very top level.
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