David Stilwell Unpacks How the US, China Covered Trump-Xi Talks

And joining us to unpack the different signals out of the US and China on the Trump meeting is retired Brigadier General David Stillwell. He's a former defense atache at the US embassy in Beijing and former assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. General Stillwell, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. >> Here we are again. >> Xinping used the words partner and friend in his opening speech and then he also said that Trump is making America great again. kind of surprising given the if you will adversarial relationship between the two countries especially the tensions that have been escalating. What do you make of this change in tone if you will? >> It could be one of two things. It could be many things but my initial estimate is one uh the PRC have an entire curriculum on flattery and in fact that the President Trump uses flattery so well some people criticize him for flattering you know the desperates like Putin and Kim Jong-un and the rest but if you notice he will flatter enemy adversaries and and wire brush our our closest friends there's a there's a point to that the PRC are masters at this and I can't tell many how meetings I was in as a defense at that where the Chinese counterpart would tell my boss what a great guy Stillwell is and how he's giving us everything we want. I mean, that's cutting me off at the knees. It's using flattery as as a tool. Uh it also softens up the person on the other side of the table. It tells the other side that it it um disarms you. You are reluctant to come out strong uh either verbally or in actions when someone's telling you how good you're looking you are. I didn't suffer much of that in my career, but um I I would just chalk it up to flattery uh and to hopefully representing the fact that the PRC is recognizing that they are not in a demanding position, but they need to start giving more. I want to dig into that a little bit because if you look at different coverages of these talks, Shinua or China mouthpiece media is talking about, you know, cracking down on illegal immigration, telecom fraud, anti-moneyaundering, artificial intelligence, pandemic response. US media meanwhile covering tariffs, China's expert controls on rare earth, soybeans, US soybeans, uh, fentinel, and then also tech when it comes to especially those Nvidia high-end chips. What do you make of these very different topics, if you will, that the two media is covering? >> Both sides are trying to get their position out there. The meeting was so short, none of those things could have covered been covered in depth. Um, so each side is trying to put out what's important to it. It's also signaling it to domestic audience is what uh we hoped to accomplish in these things. As you know, the U threat or actual uh restriction on super magnets got most Americans attention because it really would crush not just you know civilian production but support for military development and and hardware. So think I think that was more aspirational both sides saying we hope we can get to this but there's no agreements made nothing it was just a it was a kind of a visual for everyone and I think as has been said before my our Azion friends would often say use the analogy that we don't care if you guys are making love or fighting when the two elephants are together they end up trampling the grass meaning oon so uh I think they're I know our folks in in Southeast Asia are hoping for more balanced and boring interaction. >> In terms of these talks, you know, heading into them, there was some concern that oh, some headlines at least was saying, oh, President Trump is going to fold on the Taiwan issue, like hand over Taiwan to Xiinping. It doesn't look like that's happened. He said Taiwan is Taiwan, which many people are seeing is dispelling that fear. What do you make of that? There's been a lot of talks about the US and its strategic ambiguity if it should become strategic clarity in terms of deterrence. What are your thoughts on all of that? >> You know, we did the chips act or we we we sent the um under secretary for economics Keith Croc to Taiwan in uh September of 2020. He met with TSMC leadership and began hammering out the deal that resulted in TSMC setting up a a foundry in Phoenix. Taiwan is worth is not just about chips, but it is an area where they are worldleading and um I think the president understands the importance of that. So again, it's hard. My advice to people who try to put too much, write to conclude too much from what the president says is look at what he does, not what he says. And so, you know, we're we're getting positive words on Taiwan. And I think that matches positive action as well. I mean, the Trump administration, Trump 1.0 really extended itself on the chips deal, began the legislation that turned into the chips act. Uh, and all of these things were positive for the Taiwan side. >> Well, a lot at stake for sure. General Still, as always, thank you so much for joining us. >> Thank you. We'll see you.