Unclosed Gestalts: Expert Explains Why Trump’s Visit to Xi Was a Failure

Kazakh political scientist Talgat Kaliyev commented on the visits of Trump and Putin to Beijing and stated that the real winner of it all was Xi Jinping, who gave nothing to either leader, reports Politeka.

He shared this in Valeriy Savchuk’s авторская program “Different People.”

“It has already been emphasized that this is Putin’s 25th visit, meaning it is a working visit where certain practical issues were discussed. The most notable of them is the construction of a second railway line to Blagoveshchensk. In other words, this is only a small section of the route, something that could clearly have been decided not at the level of heads of state, but as a purely technical matter. Everything else — ‘Power of Siberia-2’ and other projects — was limited to the signing of ordinary non-binding memorandums,” says Talgat Kaliyev.

As for Trump’s visit to Beijing, he emphasizes that it was already an event of an extraordinary level, which took place at not the most favorable moment for the United States. The expert explains that Trump wanted to arrive in the context of what he considered overwhelming successes in Iran, but the US got bogged down there, so Trump came with “unfinished business” behind him and clearly did not feel in a winning position. Had the visit taken place earlier, before the war in Iran and right after success in Venezuela, the expert argues, things would have been different.

“Beijing looks like a kind of center of the planet, where all geopolitical forces come, striving to negotiate there. It has become a sort of audience with Xi for one world leader after another. Before that, EU leaders had already visited. That means that over the past year and a half of Trump’s presidency, China has significantly strengthened its position,” explains Talgat Kaliyev.

The expert recalls that he had previously said Trump’s actions could elevate China into a leading global position. Moreover, he adds, China may be approaching the status of the world’s largest economy, especially as the US has managed to fall out with the EU, allies are drifting toward Beijing, and Arab countries may also begin shifting in that direction due to the war against Iran.