I have been following the event involving Xi and Trump in Beijing minute by minute across several live streams. The setup appears very similar to what I experienced during my time working with Swedish-Asian relations — extensive preparation from the Asian side, highly structured staffing, and a very clear hierarchy. The usual detailed note-taking is present in every stage, which is so characteristic of Asian diplomatic culture, sometimes even with two note-takers assigned to a single VIP.
As always, the organization is extremely well executed, with large teams carefully following the schedule and preparing each next step before the previous one has even concluded. In many ways, it seems to be business as usual.
At the same time, the American side has brought an impressive delegation of business leaders. If you study the seating arrangements at the state banquet, you can already identify several emerging or strategically important connections. There also appears to be a limited need for translators in the interactions between major US CEOs and their Chinese counterparts seated beside them, which suggests that the Chinese side has carefully planned and prioritized key relationship matching.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of all this, especially as China’s new five-year plan represents a genuinely new direction for business and economic development, with a very clear long-term vision for entering a new phase.
However, judging from the comments made yesterday by the Chinese side, as well as the requests coming from the US delegation, both parties seem to be searching for flexible solutions. At the same time, if you look beneath the public statements and study the underlying strategy, it is clear that both sides are currently positioning themselves carefully.
And finally, perhaps not as many guests in the manor ballroom as one might expect — but, as usual in Asia, very large rooms.
