How the ‘G2’ effect of Trump-Xi summit is reverberating through Asia

Wang Xiangwei is a senior visiting scholar (2026-27) at the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, Harvard Kennedy School, and a former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post.For American and Chinese people interested in the outcome of the latest summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, their conclusions could not be more different if they turn to the media and pundits for guidance.Chinese state media spared no superlative, echoing the official description of the summit as: forging the right way for the major powers to get along and writing a new chapter in ties. It played up the fact that Trump gave Xi the highest-level reception and met him at the airport, the first time since 1962 that a US president has done so for a visiting leader other than a pope.By contrast, US media and pundits were almost united in dismissing the summit as heavy on symbolism and light on substance, noting that both leaders played down their stark differences and delivered little more than a two-month extension of the trade truce and a new dialogue on artificial intelligence.