Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) To watch Donald Trump welcome Xi Jinping to Washington this week, you would think the People’s Republic of China was one of the United States’ closest allies. As Xi descended the steps from his plane at Joint Base Andrews on 23 September, Trump was waiting to greet him on the tarmac. The US president escorted him along a red carpet to observe a 21-gun salute and a military flypast, wincing mightily as two US Air Force B-1 bombers roared overhead.
Xi, for his part, barely moved. Barack Obama made the trip to Andrews to welcome Pope Francis to the US in 2015. But other than the late pope, the last foreign leader to receive such a welcome at the air force base was the British prime minister Harold Macmillan, who was greeted by then US president John F.
Kennedy in 1962. Xi did not deign to travel to the airport to meet Trump when he visited Beijing earlier this year. Yet, the current US president does have form for staging elaborate welcome ceremonies for leaders he admires.
Last year, he greeted Vladimir Putin at a US air force base in Alaska , smiling and clapping as the Russian president walked towards him on the red carpet and told him, as a formation of US military aircraft streaked overhead, “this is for you.” Subscribe to the New Statesman and save 40% for 1 year! Related
Source: New Statesman
