Let's start out with a few words regarding President Xi Jinping of china. The New York Times credits him with an anti-corruption stance. This has been at the expense of jailing a substantial number of lawyers. Positive effects have not been exactly inundating the Chinese people.
Xi has shut down media and monasteries and conducted draconian crackdowns on minority groups such as the Uighurs. He has taken every possible step to consolidate power to himself. Smoke and mirrors is a universal aspect of power based on the lesser values. This is what the Times calls anti-corruption.
Therefore
When watching Mr. Xi chum up with Donald Trump you may feel that there is a certain informal force at work. Perhaps Mr. Xi will be the antidote to all of the poison that seems to be inhabiting the US political realm at the moment. But it is just as likely that the Xi presence will confirm a suspicion that the world is not a collection of governments that care for the wellbeing of all their inhabitants. Instead, the largest and most powerful nation states are in the hands of men who care more for themselves than for their people. That's putting it mildly.
The New York Times version
The Times account of the Xi visit and prospects might be described as vague and a bit sunny. It dwells on the importance to Xi of dynastic things and points to his Chinese family connections.
These ties are likened to Jared Kushner's place within the Trump clan. There is some reference to how to fill the time the Chinese President will spend at the chosen venue of this week's meeting, the Trump spread at Mar-a-Lago in sunny Florida.
Substantive issues like the North Korea matter and trade policies will clearly be discussed but apparently, China has already provided Trump with speech drafts which can be used to summarize the meeting which has not yet taken place.
China Learns How to Get Trump’s Ear: Through Jared Kushner https://t.co/8lmW3b2yUT
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) April 2, 2017
The real kinship
It may come down to the two men themselves, Xi and Trump. Both of them have no evident interest beyond their own personal concerns. This might create a sort of symbiotic understanding. But whether anyone else will benefit is at best a hopeful question.
