Donald Trump’s first meeting with Xi Jinping was all about business

THIS has been an unsettling week for “America First” types. On April 6th their chin-jutting, finger-jabbing champion, President Donald Trump, responded to shocking images of children murdered by chemical weapons in Syria with punitive cruise missile strikes that, in the words of the White House spokesman Sean Spicer, included “a huge humanitarian component”.

To some on the nationalist right, such interventionist talk from Mr Trump was like finding themselves at the ballet when they thought they had tickets for a pro-wrestling tournament. Happily for such America Firsters, Syria was not the only foreign policy test faced by Mr Trump this week. At the same time as he was sending Tomahawk missiles to destroy parked Syrian warplanes and other assets, the president hosted his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on April 6th and 7th at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home.

And to hear Mr Trump’s team describe the summit, when it came to dealing with China, the president stuck to the hard-headed mercantilism that was one of his greatest hits on the campaign trail. The two-day summit ended without formal conclusions, or even a press conference. Chinese state media coverage revolved around windy...Continue reading