Receiving line for Donald Trump offers a rare glimpse of Beijing’s strategic US relations team
The welcome ceremony for visiting US president shone light on the central figures who will help China shape relations with the US over the next five years
As US President Donald Trump stepped out of a car outside the Great Hall of the People for a welcoming ceremony on Thursday morning, a line of Chinese officials standing on the red carpet rolled out before a flight of imposing stairs waited to greet him.
The presence of this group of top officials, whose hands Trump shook one by one, shed light on who the central figures will be who will help shape China’s relations with the US over the next five years.
Whereas in the Trump administration key China officials usually hold a state title, the circle of officials around President Xi Jinping who have a real say in China’s US policies – or foreign policy in general – may seem shrouded in haze to outsiders. Some only hold a senior position in the party and may not have an impressive government title, making it hard for foreign parties to locate the right channel or counterpart.
Trump’s arrival at the Great Hall offered the first public glimpse since the ruling Communist Party reshuffled its senior leadership last month of the Chinese team that will take care of Sino-US ties.
Among the 17 officials was a top leader on the party’s Politburo Standing Committee – the apex of power in the Communist state – and four members of the wider Politburo who sit a rung below.
Their seniority is part of the “state visit plus” treatment China has promised for Trump, apart from all the sumptuous pageantry that followed his arrival.
