Chinese leader Xi Jinping will quite literally play his trump card if a purported early April visit to President Donald Trump’s sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate is given the green light later this week.
The estate was built by scions of the Post family, the inventors of breakfast cereal, and was purchased by Donald Trump in 1985. The estate, whose unique Spanish name means ‘Sea to Lake’ or ‘Sea Lake,’ has since been used as a ‘Southern White House’ and Camp David-style retreat.
The April 6-7 meeting between the leaders of the world’s largest economies is tentative as of now. CNN reports US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Beijing later this week to confirm the meeting and lay the groundwork for the agenda with China’s top political brass.
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Unlike Nixon’s week-long watershed visit to China in 1972, this meeting will undoubtedly have significantly less pomp and circumstance. Axios reports that no golf, fishing or boating activities are planned (Sad!) and that the summit in Florida will be a working meeting. Likely topics between the leaders will be the hoopla surrounding the South China Sea, North Korea and trade related issues.
On the heels of Xi Jinping’s visit, Trump has recently embraced the One China stance and has been awarded a slew of trademarks that allow him to use in name and likeness in a diverse series of products, including a Trump-branded escort service.
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Political junkies will note that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was hosted at the Mar-a-Lago compound last month and that this meeting will mark the first time Trump and Xi have met in person.
What will come out of these (potential) talks has yet to be seen, but Trump hosting Xi Jinping at his Florida home is a positive sign of improving health in what could be the world’s most vital diplomatic and economic bilateral relationship.
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