Little real progress seen in Xi’s sit-down with Obama
Analysts say keeping focus on climate-change deal is a way to gloss over serious tensions between leaders of China and US
Despite the ratification of a landmark climate-change deal on the eve of the Group of 20 (G20) summit, the presidents of China and the US made little headway on easing tensions between the world’s top two economies.
The talks between Xi Jinping and Barack Obama laid bare the discord and growing animosity over a range of trade and security disputes, observers said.
Intriguingly, statements made separately late on Saturday night by the White House and the Chinese foreign ministry both described the meeting between Xi and Obama as “candid”, which in diplomatic language is a synonym for tough talks with few results.
“Obama’s candid talk with Xi is poorly timed, as it will have next to no effect,” said Steve Tsang, a senior fellow at the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham. “Xi knows Obama is on his way out and will just wait him out or essentially ignore what Obama might have said,” he said.
Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said that although the two leaders touched on some 20 bilateral, regional and global issues, there was little progress.
