‘Basketball, blue jeans and Chinese restaurants’: Trump hails deep US-China ties at Xi banquet
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Basketball, blue jeans and Chinese restaurants’: Trump hails deep US-China ties at Xi banquet")
Trump uses Beijing banquet to stress cultural and economic links Photograph: (AFP)
In one of the speech’s most widely discussed moments, Trump pointed to the popularity of Chinese food in the United States as evidence of cultural integration between the two countries.
celebrates US-China cultural ties in Beijing
US President Donald Trump used a state banquet hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to assert that American and Chinese societies are far more interrelated than political tensions often suggest, pointing to the popularity of Chinese restaurants across the United States as a symbol of growing cultural exchange. He also argued that the relationship between the two powers is deeply rooted in culture, trade and shared history.
Speaking after high-level talks with Xi, Trump described the discussions as ‘extremely positive and productive’ and thanked Chinese officials for what he called a ‘magnificent welcome’. But much of his speech focused on how interconnected American and Chinese societies have become over decades of exchange. “The world is a special world with the two of us united and together,” Trump said during the banquet, framing cooperation between Washington and Beijing as central to global stability and prosperity.
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Food, basketball and blue jeans used as symbols of exchange
In one of the speech’s most widely discussed moments, Trump pointed to the popularity of Chinese food in the United States as evidence of cultural integration between the two countries. “As many Chinese love basketball and blue jeans, Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast-food chains in the United States, all combined — that’s a pretty big,” he said.
Trump invokes history to underline ties
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Trump also used the speech to highlight historical links between the two countries. He referenced Samuel Shaw, one of the first American merchants to trade with China after US independence, and noted that Benjamin Franklin had cited Confucius in his writings.
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He also referred to Chinese workers who helped build rail tracks connecting America’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts, saying: “Chinese workers helped to lay the rail tracks that helped to connect our Atlantic coast to the Pacific.” At another point, Trump said Americans who travelled to China helped spread 'literacy and modern medicine'.
He argued that both countries shared values of ‘hard work’, ‘courage’ and ‘achievement’, adding: “We love our families and we love our countries.” Trump said the US and China had “the chance to create a future of greater prosperity, cooperation, happiness and peace for our children”, describing the relationship between the two nations as vital to global stability and economic growth.
