Trump and Xi Meet in Beijing. Musk, Cook and Jensen Bring Economic Prestige to Taiwan, Melania, Rubio and Hegseth.
Being in China when Trump is around means being in China in a different way. It is like being close to the scene of the crime. There is a special connection. Moreover, it had been a long time since an American president last visited the Middle Kingdom. Trump himself, during his first term, was the last to do so. And it was he who initiated the trade war later continued by Biden.
Back then, the expression Chuan Jianguo (传建国) became popular on Chinese social media, a play on words that humorously referred to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. “Chuan” (传), however painful it may sound to us, resembles “Trump” to Chinese ears, while “Jianguo” (建国) literally means “to build a country” or “to found a nation,” and is commonly used in patriotic Chinese names.
Taken together, “Chuan Jianguo” is interpreted as a satirical nickname alluding to Trump and his rhetoric about “making America great again.” It is an example of how creative or humorous nicknames are sometimes used in China to refer to international figures.
Grounding
Much has changed since that visit. Positions have hardened on both sides, and the protective sky of old-fashioned nationalism has taken over the discourse, not only among top leaders but also among ordinary people. Now everyone wants to be great, waving their grand ambitions in every direction while scorning grounding — that process which, as we know, prevents damage to people and equipment by safely diverting dangerous electrical currents into the earth—.
The Film
Everyone knows it. In An American in Paris, Minnelli tangled the plot as much as he could because he knew that only a magician like himself could emerge unscathed from such a challenge. In this new version of the film, set in a different location and whose shooting we are all witnessing, we still fail to see how each plot twist fits together: tariffs everywhere, bans on rare earth exports, conflicts or wars in Russia, Venezuela and Iran, without forgetting certain Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark regarding Taiwan — all of which is to say that the leading actors guide us through the movie without giving us much idea of where we are actually heading.
For those who may not remember, on 08/08/2008 at 8:08 p.m. Peking local time, China’s Olympic Games officially began, making it perfectly clear that the number 8 is considered one of great fortune in Chinese culture. In the same way, Trump has wanted to ride the lucky wave of this digit, showing his face for the first time precisely at 8:08 in the evening Peking time. That said, it was on May 13. Not everything can be exactly the same when one wants to be great again.
Objectives
People say, it is whispered, that the visit has a clearly economic character on the American side, and that this is why the president has arrived escorted by Musk, Cook, Jensen & Co., not forgetting that he will also ask his supposed rival and Chinese counterpart for a hand regarding Iran — a hand his own supposed allies have denied him.
People say, it is whispered, that Xi, for his part, will ask for what is beyond anything previously written regarding Taiwan: that the American halt the sale of 11 billion dollars’ worth of weaponry to Formosa, approved by Congress last November, and that he reformulate his language whenever he refers to the island. Nothing less, if the American wants China to continue buying the three Bs (beef, beans and Boeings — and quite a batch of the latter: 500!).
No one needs to be told that everything is deeply entangled. We shall see what comes of this still unfinished An American in Peking!
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Originally published in the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio.
