Donald Trump’s meeting with Jack Ma suggests new wave of ‘business diplomacy’
US president-elect’s talks with Alibaba boss and other businessmen seen as sign that business contacts will add new dimension to foreign relations, say analysts
Donald Trump’s surprising meeting with Jack Ma, chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has triggered concerns about a new “business-to-business” approach on the diplomatic front lines.
As Trump would be the first US president with a career spent exclusively in business, it was likely that he would pay more attention to personal connections and contacts – on top of established diplomatic channels – to deal with international economic issues, including Sino-US ones, analysts said.
Since Trump won the US election in November, he has been breaking protocol by throwing out his views on his Twitter account, and his base in New York City has been frequented by business executives. He had met Masayoshi Son, the Softbank chairman, before he met Ma, and Son said he intended to invest US$50 billion in the US and create 50,000 jobs. Trump had also invited executives from firms like Google, Apple and Facebook for a meeting to discuss jobs and the economy.
Trump is also trying to fill key public offices with business executives, including proposing Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of oil company Exxon Mobile, as secretary of state.
Li Mingjiang, a professor from Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, said Trump’s interactions with business figures had been “vigorous”.
“[Mr Trump] is not a political figure, it’s natural for him to meet political leaders as well as business leaders from other countries,” Li said. “Other national political leaders meet important foreign business leaders quite often as well. We can’t judge whether he’s a person who only likes to meet with businesspeople because of this meeting with Jack Ma.”
