US President Donald Trump recounted his bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and said that he wants his cabinet to be like that of the Chinese. Imitating the way in which Chinese officials stood in front of Xi Jinping, Trump said that he was surprised to see everyone in “attention.” Naming US Vice President JD Vance, Trump seemed to be lamenting that his cabinet including the vice president does not behave in the manner in which the Chinese behaved around their president. Trump and Jinping met in Busan, South Korea, last month on the sidelines of the APEC summit and reached an agreement regarding rare earth minerals.
In a closed-door meeting with Republican senators at a White House breakfast on Wednesday (Nov 5), Trump described how there were six officials on either side of Xi, and all of them were standing straight. “And every one of those people were standing like this,” Trump showed, with his arms behind his back and his chin up. “They were at attention,” he added. Praising Jinping, Trump called him a tough and smart man. “I’ve never seen men so scared in their lives,” Trump added. “I said, ‘Are you gonna answer me?’ I got no response. And President Xi didn’t let him have any”, adding, “I want my Cabinet to behave like that.”
Looking immensely impressed, Trump turned to Vance and asked why he doesn’t behave in a similar fashion. “Why don’t you behave like that? JD doesn’t behave like that. JD budges into conversations! I want that for at least a couple of days, OK, JD?” The senators in the room bursts into laughter.
After the meeting between Trump and XI, both sides expressed their desire for a stable relationship between the two countries. Jinping said that the US and China should not fall into a “vicious cycle of retaliation or revenge.” Jinping said that China’s development vision goes hand in hand with Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda. Xi said that both countries should ensure the steady sailing forward of the “giant ship of China-US relations.” Trump called Jinping a “tough negotiator” and quipped ‘that’s not good.’ The Chinese president highlighted that the US and China do not always “see eye to eye”, but they should strive to be “partners and friends.”
