Trump-Xi summit has a clear deliverable, says Singapore’s former US ambassador Chan Heng Chee

US President Donald Trump (right) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping arriving for a state dinner at the White House in Washington, DC, on Sept 24.

PHILADELPHIA - Watching from halfway across the world as President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Professor Chan Heng Chee saw signs that both leaders were keen to build a workable relationship amid their strategic rivalry.

The veteran Singaporean diplomat, who was Singapore’s longest-serving envoy in Washington, said she does not concur with assessments by most analysts that the second meeting between the two presidents in four months was more hype than substance.

“The Trump-Xi summit has a clear deliverable – a relationship,” she told The Straits Times in an interview on Sept 24.

For President Xi, she said, the central objective of the visit was to advance what he has called a relationship of “constructive strategic stability”. 

“I think that was his main interest in this trip because it leads to other things,” Chan said.

The phrase, used by Xi in speeches delivered in Washington, refers to a broad diplomatic framework for managing the US-China rivalry so that their competition does not worsen into a full-blown crisis or war. 

The two leaders adopted it during their May 13-15 meeting in Beijing. They interpret it differently, but see value in putting guardrails around their rivalry. 

Taiwan illustrates the difficulty in doing so. Beijing would see US arms sales or senior-level contacts with Taiwan as undermining stability in its relationship with the self-ruled island, which China regards as a breakaway province awaiting reunification.

Washington, on the other hand, is likely to see arming Taiwan as necessary for preserving stability and making a potential invasion by China less attractive.

Singapore’s longest-serving US ambassador Chan Heng Chee says the Trump-Xi summit was about building a relationship.

Chan said Trump’s comments in a Fox News interview after the Beijing summit offered an insight into how he viewed the relationship. 

Anchor Bret Baier had asked Trump about the most significant outcome for the US.  “I think the most important thing is relationship. It’s all about relationship,” Trump said.  “I have a very good relationship with President Xi and with China. And it sounds like something that doesn’t mean anything, but it’s everything,” he added.

Chan said the assessment was understandable. “If you have a relationship, you can do a deal, and you can solve other problems. And that was the main deliverable of this meeting.” 

She also took cues from the commentary on the leaders’ public interactions. “I read that experts were noting that they were touching each other’s arms. Trump was patting Xi on the back. Of course, it is also to show ‘I’m more dominant’. But Xi also patted Trump on the back. They were trying to establish a comfort level,” she said.

More substantively, Chan said Xi’s reference to overcoming the “Thucydides trap” – the idea that rivalry between an established power and a rising power tends towards war unless checked – was encouraging.

“He was saying ‘we do not have to be in conflict’,” she said. 

Likewise, the references in their speeches to fighting on the same side during World War II. “The touch points were the times they worked together,” she said, “so I think they’re trying to focus on cooperation.”

Chan said it would matter if Trump and Xi carried on meeting at the upcoming APEC and G20 meetings, and into the following year. “Because when they meet, they establish a relationship,” she said.