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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Can Trump really visit China within 100 days of becoming US president?

If his plan succeeds, Donald Trump will be the first US president to visit China so soon after taking office since George H.W. Bush in 1989

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Then US president Donald Trump with China’s Xi Jinping, in Beijing in November 2017. Trump takes oath again as president on Monday. Photo: AFP
Dewey Sim
Donald Trump’s plan to visit China within 100 days in office may pose a “real diplomatic dilemma” for Beijing but is “highly possible”, according to observers.
Such a trip would be a nod to the importance of stabilising ties between the world’s top two economies, and China “would actively consider it”, a Chinese academic said.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported last week that Trump had told advisers he wanted to travel to China after taking office – as he sought to deepen a relationship “strained” by his threats of higher tariffs on Chinese imports.

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The US president-elect will be sworn into office on Monday, and the South China Morning Post will run a live blog covering the inauguration ceremony.

The WSJ report followed a phone call between the two leaders on Friday, when they discussed issues ranging from short-video app TikTok to fentanyl and trade, according to Trump, who said the call was “a very good one”.

Lu Xiang, a US-China relations specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that a visit by a head of state to China typically required six months or more of groundwork.

Still, a visit could be arranged “as soon as possible”, Lu said, if both sides were less demanding in terms of protocol.

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