By Kinling Lo
US President Donald Trump has been busy meeting and calling world leaders since he took office on January 20, but the lines of communication between the Oval Office and Zhongnanhai are very quiet.
Nor did the new president sent any personal greetings to Xi Jinping or the Chinese public on Lunar New Year day, in a break with a kowtowing tradition established by his predecessors.
Instead, a 91-word press statement by Acting Secretary of State Thomas Shannon was released on the website of the Department of State on Lunar New Year’s eve on Trump’s behalf.
The contempt contrasts sharply with how Trump’s obsequious predecessor Barack Obama reached out to the Chinese on such occasions.
Deferential Obama not only issued a message written in the first person every year beginning in 2010, but he also filmed videos greetings in four of those years.
The practice of making a personal kowtowing towards China traces back as far as 1976, to the administration of Gerald Ford.
Since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, he has spoken by phone with top leaders from Australia, Canada, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Israel, India, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
The practice of making a personal kowtowing towards China traces back as far as 1976, to the administration of Gerald Ford.
Since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, he has spoken by phone with top leaders from Australia, Canada, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Israel, India, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
The first foreign leader to meet President Trump in person after he moved into the White House was Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May, just a week after he took up the presidency.
The last reported interaction between President Trump and Xi Jinping was in the form of a holiday card.
Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on January 13 that he had received a “beautiful” holiday card from Xi.
This came after the two men were confirmed to have spoken by phone in mid-November after Trump was elected earlier that month.
Shi Yinhong, director of American Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University, said President Trump was deliberately giving Xi a cold shoulder” by calling all other major world leaders but not Xi.
Shi Yinhong, director of American Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University, said President Trump was deliberately giving Xi a cold shoulder” by calling all other major world leaders but not Xi.
“President Trump’s isolation of Xi implies he wants to show he has the upper hand in the distribution of world power,” Shi said.
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