US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a 135-minute summit at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. After the meeting, Xi said he had "agreed with President Trump to establish a constructive and strategically stable China-US relationship." Trump described his relationship with Xi as "the best between US and Chinese leaders ever." The White House said the two leaders agreed on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and barring Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Trump is scheduled to continue talks with Xi on Wednesday over tea and lunch.
The summit, which took place after one postponement, drew global attention as core agenda items including US-China trade tensions, the Taiwan issue, and the Iran war were brought to the table. Trump's decision to bring along American business heavyweights such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Apple CEO Tim Cook signals Washington's willingness to pursue economic cooperation with Beijing. The two countries are indeed in discussions to set up a trade committee and an investment committee to manage trade issues.
Still, the two leaders engaged in a considerable war of nerves over sensitive matters. Xi notably stressed that "if (the Taiwan issue) is mishandled, the two countries will collide or even clash." Xi's direct warning of a "US-China clash" is unusual. He also explicitly mentioned the "Thucydides Trap," a term referring to a rising power colliding with an established hegemon. In effect, he demanded a new "coexistence of hegemonies" centered on a US-China "G2 bipolar system" rather than the existing US-led unipolar order. The two leaders' joint climb up the altar at Tiantan Park, where emperors once performed rituals to heaven, was likewise a protocol event orchestrated by the Chinese side in the same vein.
The summit is viewed as the two powers opting for "managed stability" at a time when the United States is bogged down in the quagmire of a war with Iran. For South Korea, this could be seen as creating room to expand its diplomatic maneuvering space between Washington and Beijing. However, given that China is pushing more forcefully for stronger hegemony as a G2 power, volatility in the economic and security landscape is likely to grow. It is time for the government to closely monitor shifts in the international order and meticulously refine a pragmatic, national-interest-driven diplomatic strategy that can maximize South Korea's economic and security interests between the two powers.
