‘I probably don’t want to leave’: Trump gushes over China during tiptoe among the trees

May 15, 2026 — 7:45pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Beijing: As Chinese leader Xi Jinping took his US rival on a stroll through the secretive compound of the Communist Party, he pointed out the historic trees that have flourished since imperial times.

“Let me tell you, all the trees here are over two or three hundred years old, and there’s another tree over 400 years old over there,” Xi told US President Donald Trump through an interpreter as they wandered the gardens of Zhongnanhai.

“There are also 1000-year-old trees in other places.”

It was one of several highly choreographed glimpses of the Xi-Trump dynamic that the press was invited to record across the two-day summit, which featured hours of closed-door negotiations over the thorny issues of trade, Taiwan, the Iran war and artificial intelligence.

The symbolism of the old trees taps the cornerstone theme Beijing likes to project. China has endured for thousands of years – a measure by which the American empire is a recent phenomenon, and one Xi believes is in decline.

If Trump picked up on the messaging, he gave little away, keeping himself on an uncharacteristically tight leash with his public remarks throughout the summit.

“Nice, nice place. I like it. I like this place. I can get used to staying here, and I probably don’t want to leave,” he told Xi, as they lingered in the gardens.

For a summit low on expectations but high on optics, Xi delivered a carefully crafted spectacle designed to project China’s status as the foremost peer to the US, occupying the rarefied air of two superpower nations capable of reshaping international relations for better or worse.

The “China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. We must make it work and never mess it up”, Xi said in a toast, as the Chinese side hosted Trump at a banquet at The Great Hall of the People on Thursday evening.

These kinds of highly billed proceedings rarely land consequential........

© Brisbane Times