- Published
US President Donald Trump has presented Chinese President Xi Jinping with a sculpture of a bald eagle, a bird native to North America and his country's national symbol, during a lavish state dinner in Washington.
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Trump → publish → Washington
The gift, which was unveiled before VIP guests at the Thursday dinner, embodies "the free and soaring spirit of America", said Trump.
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Trump → unveil → America
He said that he and First Lady Melania Trump participated in its design.
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he → say → design
Such gifts are a small but meaningful element of the larger aim of Xi and Trump's three-day summit – forging personal relationships between heads of two global superpowers.
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gifts → forge → superpowers
"They're going to discuss all of these complicated issues," Daniel Kritenbrink, partner at The Asia Group says.
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Kritenbrink → go → Group
"So that personal relationship means something," he says.
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he → mean → something
"I think the gift exchange is one key part of that."
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exchange → think → that
Kritenbrink, who spent over 30 years as a US diplomat, mostly in Asia, says personal relationships are of particular importance to Xi.
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relationships → spend → Xi
He believes the direct Trump-Xi bond is the glue that is holding together "the most complex and the most consequential relationship in the world".
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that → believe → world
He says Trump, too, values what Kritenbrink calls "leader-level diplomacy".
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Kritenbrink → say → what
Gifts have had a unique presence in the Trump presidency.
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Gifts → have → presidency
The US president has received a luxury jumbo jet, an engraved gold bar, a diamond-and-jewel encrusted gold ring, and more.
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president → receive → jet
Ole Jacob Sending from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs says: "You think about the Trump presidency in that way, I think gift giving, certainly broadly defined, is very much part of how he operates."
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he → say → way
On Thursday morning, Xi announced a gift of two Chinese pandas to a zoo in Atlanta - and a new student exchange programme, which will welcome 100,000 US students to study in China over five years.
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students → announce → years
"The giant panda have been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and the Americans," Xi said.
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Xi → say → Chinese
"In a few days, two pandas - Ping Ping and Fu Shuang - will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people.
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pandas → come → people
It's unclear if he gave any further presents.
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he → give → presents
The BBC has contacted the White House.
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BBC → contact → House
Today, the practice of giving lavish gifts mostly exists in Gulf states and autocratic governments.
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practice → give → states
"Autocracies like China give much more expensive gifts," says Morten Skumsrud Anderson, who co-authored a study on diplomacy and gifts with Sending.
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who → give → Sending
In the West, Anderson says, the tradition has been watered down by democratic guardrails and restrictions.
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tradition → say → guardrails
For example, the US Constitution has an emoluments clause that puts a dollar-value limit on gifts a president can receive from a foreign government.
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president → have → government
Anything higher and it becomes federal property, unless the president chooses to buy it back with his own money.
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president → become → money
Also, when giving a gift beyond a certain amount, a US president would have to go through Congress, unless he was paying for it personally.
"
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he → give → it
There are a lot of rules and protocols involved," Sending says, "A lot of thought and process relating to what type of gift to to give, where should the gift exchange happen?
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exchange → be → gift
How should it happen?
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it → happen → ?
"All of this is highly scripted, and involves negotiation at lower levels that goes on for weeks and weeks in advance," Sending says.
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Sending → script → advance
Anderson adds: "This is not a last-minute purchase at the airport."
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This → add → airport
During Xi's state visit to the US in 2013, then-President Barack Obama gifted him an inscribed bench made of redwood, native to California where the two had met.
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two → gift → California
They sat on it together afterwards, smiling for cameras.
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They → sit → cameras
It was a more shining example than in 2009, when then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gifted Obama an ornamental desk pen holder made from the timbers of a historic anti-slave ship; while Obama gave Brown a set of DVDs, which reportedly were not formatted for UK DVD players.
"That's one example of a kind of an embarrassing exchange," Sending says.
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Sending → gift → exchange
Fortunately, Brown and Obama were allied leaders and not deep rivals looking to resolve seemingly intractable differences.
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Brown → ally → differences
"You don't want to mess up," Sending says, adding that the wrong gift could potentially derail any larger objectives.
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gift → want → objectives
Their third face-to-face encounter since the start of Trump's second term, this summit is happening amid growing fears of an AI-led apocalypse as both countries race for dominance in the quickly growing industry.
It's also taking place in the wake of a bitter US-China trade war that has only been resolved by a temporary truce, extended on this trip.
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that → happen → trip
So, do the military plane flyovers, cue the performances, fill the wine the glasses, Kritenbrink says.
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Kritenbrink → cue → performances
"It's protocol and it's optics and it's gift giving all as a means to an end, which is stable US-China relations," Kritenbrink says.
"
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Kritenbrink → say → end
I'll take a fragile truce over a white-hot trade war any day of the week."
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I → take → week
The Aporia
