UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT
Second, the leaders have raised their diplomacy to a new level.
Mr Trump went to Beijing in May, and Mr Xi came to Washington in September. They will meet again at APEC in Shenzhen in November and at the G20 in Miami in December. That is four meetings in one year, unprecedented in the history of bilateral ties.
Some analysts say the summit was not well prepared. The two sides had different hopes, not least on how long to extend the trade truce, and a rumored delegation of Chinese business leaders never showed up.
Yet the calendar now works in the leaders’ favour. Every deadline has a meeting in front of it. The truce now runs to Jan 10, 2027, and both the Shenzhen and Miami meetings fall before it ends.
Both leaders also noted that China and the US were allies in World War II. It signals that the two can work together again when their interests align.
Third, the repeated engagements and pomp confer status. It confirms the rise of the “G2,” an idea Mr Trump revived at Busan last October. Beijing has not embraced the label in public, but it has long sought to be treated as a great power that Washington deals with on equal terms.
