Pomp and pageantry: for Chinese officials preparing for a Trump visit, every second counts

By Sylvie Zhuang, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — With brisk strides, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will descend 39 red-carpeted steps outside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, a political landmark at the very heart of the Chinese capital.

Each step is timed so that he walks past top officials from the Chinese and US delegations, reaching a discreet point on the red carpet within seconds of the arrival of his guest, US President Donald Trump. On cue, ceremonial music begins.

This level of precise, by-the-second planning, demonstrated during Trump’s first visit to Beijing in 2017, will be on show again from Thursday, with the US president expected to visit to the Temple of Heaven, an ancient place of worship where emperors once prayed for good harvests, and Zhongnanhai, the secretive headquarters of the ruling Communist Party – about which little is publicly revealed.

“The Chinese are very, very meticulous. They want to plan everything very exactly,” said William Klein, a retired US diplomat who helped arrange Trump’s 2017 visit and is now a senior partner at strategic communications consultancy FGS Global.

Talks with a president as unpredictable as Trump present a huge logistical challenge for people obsessed with precision; diplomats need only to look at the US leader’s recent meeting with his Japanese counterpart where he joked about Japan’s WWII attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I think the spontaneity will be what the president says during the meetings and there is no way to control that,” said Sarah Beran, a former senior US diplomat who helped arrange Trump’s previous visit to China in 2017 and Xi’s meeting with Biden in 2023. Beran predicted Beijing would limit media access to avoid any off-script remarks being widely reported.

Behind the scenes, lower-level and senior officials from both countries have been working for months to craft deliverables and refine political messages.

On the Chinese side, nothing is left to chance; nothing can go wrong – especially during the highly choreographed public events.

The ultimate aim of Chinese officials is to present their leader in the best possible light, while making their guest feel suitably respected. During Trump’s previous visit in 2017, he was feted with an exceptionally rare private tour of the the Forbidden City, cultural displays – including a Peking opera performance, and a welcoming ceremony featuring dozens of cheering children.

This time around, Trump’s very presence in China during a time of global turmoil — created by his decision to launch attacks on Iran — is itself something of a win for Beijing.

“Having Trump being here and the two leaders could have face to face time with each other is already a significant deliverable and a success,” said a Chinese source familiar with the matter.

“Always an amazing show”

The global political landscape has changed markedly since 2017, when Beijing famously threw a “state plus” visit uniquely crafted for Trump.

“Every detail reflected painstaking craftsmanship and preparation” to create a warm atmosphere and “dilute suspicion, build trust, and encourage Washington to take China’s interests into greater consideration when shaping policy,” Chinese state media reported at the time.

Xi personally showed Trump around the Forbidden City, closing the vast palace complex to the public, so Trump and First Lady Melania could enjoy a private Peking opera performance and admire the restoration work being carried out on the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Xi later hosted Trump at a lavish banquet meal, with Trump becoming the first foreign leader to dine inside the Forbidden City since the founding of modern China.

The People’s Liberation Army honor guards, including members from its army, navy and air force, went through rounds of rigorous screening and intense training to be selected for Trump’s review in Tiananmen Square, with male guards standing around 188 cm tall and female guards averaging 175 cm in height.

Several dozen children attending nearby schools, including 10 American expatriate kids, were also selected to welcome “Grandpa Trump,” so he could feel the warmth of home and sincerity of China’s friendship, according to state media reports at the time.

“When the visit is happening in China, the Chinese government plans state visits better than any other place I’ve seen. It is always an amazing meal. There’s entertainment, so China is a very good host, for these official visits in the sense that they just put on a really amazing show,” said Beran, now a partner at global advisory firm Macro Advisory Partners.

This time, despite renewed trade tensions and an ongoing Iran war, Beijing has made friendly diplomatic gestures ahead of Trump’s visit. At the end of April, it announced it would send a pair of endearing giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta. The pandas’ names —Ping Ping and Fu Shuang — mean peace and double fortune in Chinese, respectively.

China also approved two Hollywood movies, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael,” a biographical film about US superstar Michael Jackson, to play in cinemas during its Golden Week holiday in May.

Coveted holiday box office slots are usually only reserved for domestic-produced films, so approving the screening of two films steeped in US culture was seen as a gesture to build US-China ties beyond government relations.

A tense atmosphere

Nearly a decade has passed since Trump’s last visit to Beijing, and while the number of steps on the Great Hall staircase remains the same, Beijing is now more prepared to receive the US leader.

After a decade of deepening rivalry, Beijing comes to this meeting with its own playbook, which includes a sweeping drive for economic self-reliance and a stronger toolkit to handle foreign sanctions on Chinese companies.

Beijing wants to use the leaders’ summit to show to the world it can manage a relationship with Trump and pave the way for more stable ties with the US under his eventual successor.

Xi’s expected to be a commanding presence as host, opposite a US president known more for relying on gut instinct than meticulous preparation. Chinese officials will have done an extraordinary amount of research to prepare them for any unexpected maneuvers from the US team.

“(Chinese officials are) very uncomfortable with ambiguity or with surprises. They don’t want their leaders to be surprised by topics, by questions that they failed to brief their leaders,” said Klein.

“For that reason, they try to define with the other side as much as possible, the exact agenda, the exact topics that will be raised, and quite often, they will lobby hard that certain topics not raised at all. They don’t want to talk about them,” he added.

Trade will certainly be on the agenda as both sides seek concessions and looser export restrictions, alongside the inevitable discussion about Iran and the war’s impact on the global oil market.

Away from the negotiating table, Shi Yinhong, an international relations scholar at Renmin University in Beijing, said “it is unlikely” that China will lay out as much pomp for Trump as in 2017.

Shi said after Trump’s previous visit, bilateral ties between the US and China entered a decade of deepening rivalry with tensions over trade, technology, human rights, Taiwan and South China Sea. Beijing “learned remarkable lessons,” said Shi, suggesting that putting on a lavish show doesn’t necessarily lead to better relations.

Wang Huiyao, a former counselor to China’s State Council, said the tight two-day schedule, with many issues on the table to negotiate, will make it difficult to match the spectacle of Trump’s last visit to Beijing.

“I doubt the level of ceremony or grandeur will surpass the 2017 visit,” said Wang, head of China’s semi-official think tank Center for China and Globalization.

“This time, we’re here to get down to business, and there’s a war going on.”

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