Expert analysis on Trump’s Beijing visit and US-China strategic rivalry

追加: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]speak to Abdullah Balar albe. He is an assistant professor of international affairs at Qatar University. Joining me here in the studio, very good to have you professor in the studio. Now the fact that Trump has actually arrived in Beijing and the issue of the straight of Hermoose is still unresolved.

[00:00:16]How is that impacting the sort of power balance between these two leaders? Well, that's a good question, P. I think what we are seeing now at the moment is both parties and both countries, they have an influence on each other's interest in certain files. And when you look at Taiwan, when it comes to to the Chinese interest and also to the Iranian an issue when it comes to the American interests and the question of straight form was I mean it was clear by both the US and China that they agreed that to have it to remain open which is the status quo before this war. uh started and the question of Taiwan straight as well is important because it's very twothirds of the Chinese imports comes through it. So it's very important for China to not engage into this battle of straits and the battle of imposing tools because this is could harm the Chinese economy more when it comes to the Taiwan strait when it comes to the strait of Malaga as well. So if we if we're going to copy the straight of Hermu's actions there.

[00:01:16]>> Now Chi used his evening toast to note that he and Trump had kept US and China relations generally stable in a turbulent world. Do you think that's a fair assessment given their recent trade war for example and how dependent they actually are on each other? I think when when you look at the summit, I think both both both of personalities of of the Chinese president and the American presidents, they just picked the exaggerating words to show some welcoming to each other and to give a space for maybe some to give up uh some issues when it comes to trade, when it comes to energy economies as well, which is a big big thing for them. That's why I think the Chinese president prefer to use that stable although we we know that they had a battle of tariffs on on so many uh sectors basically that's actually heated up the the relation between both parties and and we go back even to the American president with the uh term one and causing and calling the Chinese disease and term two with the tariffs as well. So I think they the both parties wants to to show it as a a big moment for each other in order to uh push the other side for more concessions to be given.

[00:02:33]>> The last time that these two met in China was back in 2017 as you mentioned during Trump's first term. How different do you think that China is today compared to the China that Trump visited in 2017? Oh, way better, way bigger actually when it comes to the economies and we saw the Chinese economy recovered from CO in a in a way and now they even uh in a better situation when it comes to the economy but the thing is politically they they're not in a good situation at the moment. They lost Venezuela as one of their allies and now we talk about Iran is under a lot of pressure and the Russians having a problem with Ukraine and with the with the European Union. So the Chinese are not actually in in a good situation when it comes to the political side. However, economy I think they are in a in a way better position based on compared to 2017. Basically >> of course for Donald Trump personal relationship is so important. That is how he forms and shapes his foreign policy based on personal relationships with other leaders. Uh Chi was talking about achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand. Do you think that Chi and Donald Trump can actually go hand in hand and create something better or is this a relationship based on tensions between these two? I mean when their interests are met I think they can go hand in hand but for the interests to be met I think there are so many concessions to be need to be given and this is should this will come at the expense of the local American companies maybe American farmers maybe and this is not something Donald Trump wants but I think he relies on the narratives that we share something because we know that there's only one parties ruling China at the same time he wants to copy that with the mega uh movement in mega movement in in the US that as the the one is bringing America back to its greatness and I think he's trying to build on some sort of a common ground uh to show that his visit to China is a successful one even before any outcomes coming out of it and to go back to China to to the US basically winning something especially with the stagnation he's facing in the Iranian issue.

[00:04:49]>> Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of Friday's meeting the day two of the meeting between these two leaders. Abdullah Bandar Alati an assistant professor of international affairs at Katal University. Thank you so much for joining me here in the studio.