Published On 4/28/2026
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Last update: 05:36 (Mecca time)
In the world of major powers, leaders’ summits are not merely high-level political meetings, but rather a precise construction of the scene before they are a negotiation of positions.
In this type of diplomacy, the manner of getting off the plane, the seating position, or the arrangement of cars in the convoy may say what the joint statements themselves do not say.
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From this perspective, a Wall Street Journal report opens a window into the hidden world that precedes the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing, where armies of employees, guards, and experts are busy ensuring that the two men stand in the right position, say the appropriate phrase, and that a small detail or ambiguous reference does not spoil the scene.
Security beyond guarding
The report opens with a scene from Xi’s visit to California in 2023, when, after lunch, his security personnel quickly collected the eating utensils he had used and sprayed them with an unknown liquid, to prevent any trace of his DNA from reaching foreign hands.
From this incident, the text depicts a world in which even food scraps are read as a matter of security and sovereignty.
The report adds that an American state visit to China requires extensive arrangements: several planes, armored presidential cars, secure communications equipment, and rooms secured against eavesdropping, as well as careful negotiation regarding the number of armed American personnel allowed to operate on Chinese soil. Even food is not left to chance; The president is accompanied by a full medical team, while the lists are examined layer by layer to prevent any possible poisoning.
In this world, the sensitivity of arrangements does not stem from their accuracy alone, but from their potential to become a political reality. Therefore, the report recalls the incident of Barack Obama at the Hangzhou summit in 2016, when he was forced to get off the plane via its internal stairs instead of the usual red stairs, in a scene that was read more as a protocol insult than an organizational stumble.
The picture is a square facing
The tension is not limited to the protocol. The report reveals that Trump’s previous visit to Beijing in 2017 witnessed a fistfight between his security personnel and Xi’s security personnel in one of the corridors of the Great Hall of the People, and it did not stop until after the intervention of diplomats from both sides.
On another front, the text describes how Xi’s visit to California in 2023 turned into a direct “information war”: supporters of Beijing raise huge flags to block opponents from the cameras, and opponents respond with banners, megaphones and symbols of Tibet.
Thus, the summit is no longer just a meeting behind closed doors, but also becomes a struggle over both image and narrative.
In conclusion, the report believes that Trump’s diplomacy differs from the classic formula, which was based on long bureaucratic preparation. During his reign, time narrowed, direct channels of communication between leaders advanced, and the focus increased on visible results and carefully crafted “atmospheres.”
Therefore, the upcoming summit between Trump and Xi does not appear to be just a major bilateral meeting, but rather a precise test of the ability of the two parties to manage a heavy rivalry without being set off by a small detail or ambiguous scene.
As the report makes clear, the optics of summits are often more impactful than the joint statements themselves.
