
Michael Kinnard
4.8K posts



🇨🇳🇺🇸 State Banquet or a very expensive waiting room? After watching the the Xi–Trump state banquet my initial impression is that; Beijing treats it like diplomacy; Washington treats it like a school trip 🎒 Xi’s team works the room, building quiet rapport over drinks and small talk. The US delegation mostly clusters with… the US delegation! Hanging out in their "American Bubble" The one person who looks like they understand “state visit = networking” is Jamieson Greer the trade rep. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio looks less like a Secretary of State and more like he's wandering a museum looking for the exit, instead of engaging with his Chinese counterparts. Elon Musk spends most of his time starring at his phone in “doomscrolling at a state banquet” mode Time in Beijing is scarce, but they act like there’s a Part Two. There isn’t... The state banquet is supposed to be where you build personal trust, read the room, test ideas informally. Instead, large chunks of the US delegation look like they’re at an airport lounge: talking to each other, scrolling their phones, barely engaging Chinese officials who are literally seated within arm’s reach This banquet is a perfect case study in why US diplomacy keeps misreading China. This is how you can “visit China” and still learn nothing about China! youtube.com/watch?v=4xAu0L…

























