Beyond the summit: how US-China relations could still unravel

This year’s Chinese National Day reception in Washington felt noticeably jollier than those I have attended in recent years. The mood was more relaxed and Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng’s opening speech was upbeat. He even joked about the panda ambassadors at his own expense.

The cheerful tone followed President Xi Jinping’s short but successful state visit to the US, during which his counterpart, President Donald Trump, gave him an unprecedented high-level reception that would have flattered even the most fastidious of guests.

Yet the mood outside the embassy was decidedly different. The opposition Democrats criticised Trump’s cosying up to “communist” China as another example of his misguided foreign policy, a betrayal of American allies and even a sell-out of national interests.

The mainstream media, locked in a feud with Trump over his ban on media access to the White House, either downplayed the visit or focused on its lack of tangible progress. Even the president’s allies admitted in private that the timing “was not right” to expect a major breakthrough.