Coming up roses? How Trump planted a new seed for Chinese gift diplomacy
Donald Trump was apparently captivated by the “beautiful” roses in the garden of the Communist Party’s leadership compound when he visited Beijing in May. It was a relaxed moment between the US and Chinese leaders – otherwise locked in disputes ranging from trade to technology and Taiwan – that led to a new opportunity for gift diplomacy between the rival powers. Strolling around the former…
Donald Trump's visit to Beijing in May was marked by a casual encounter that led to an unexpected diplomatic opportunity. As the US President and Chinese leader Xi Jinping strolled through the Zhongnanhai garden, Trump's eyes were drawn to a striking variety of China roses in bloom. Captivated by their size and beauty, he requested that President Xi send some roses to Washington for the Rose Garden at the White House.
Xi obliged, sending over 20 types of Rosa chinensis in seven colors, marking the first time these Chinese rose varieties had entered the United States. The Chinese leader explained that the roses were chosen for their suitability to Washington's climate, resilience, bloom size, and color palette.
In a statement, Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized that the China roses symbolized the goodwill and friendship of the Chinese people, while also highlighting the broader spectrum of gifts exchanged during Xi's visit. In addition to the roses, Xi presented Trump with a golden model of the Hall of Supreme Harmony from Beijing's Forbidden City. In response, Trump gifted the Chinese leader a silver plate with his signature, and they exchanged a sculpture of a bald eagle, a national symbol for the United States.
The most attention-grabbing gifts, however, were the arrival of giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang at Zoo Atlanta. Sent under a 10-year loan agreement, these pandas will spend a month in quarantine before their public debut on November 6 at a recently renovated facility costing US$6 million. As living emissaries of goodwill, these pandas continue a long-standing tradition of "panda diplomacy" between China and the United States, dating back to 1972 when Beijing gifted Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing to a Washington zoo following Richard Nixon's historic China visit.
In return for the pandas, the US government sent China a pair of musk oxen as a gesture of mutual exchange.
Written by urgent.news from Reuters Business via SCMP's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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