On the morning of the 15th, Xi Jinping held a small-scale meeting and tea gathering at Zhongnanhai with visiting U.S. President Trump. Trump was curious whether other foreign heads of state were also received here in China, to which Xi Jinping frankly replied, “Very rarely.”
According to CNN, Trump’s schedule on the 15th was packed. Starting at 8:00 a.m., he first attended an “executive time” meeting, which was closed to the public. At 10:55 a.m., he and Xi Jinping would take a walk and photo together in the Zhongnanhai Garden. At 11:05 a.m., the two would hold a tea gathering. Following that, at 11:40 a.m., they would have a working lunch together. After lunch, Trump would depart back to the United States.
At the beginning of the tea gathering, Xi Jinping said, today we are holding a tea gathering for President Trump here at Zhongnanhai. “Zhongnanhai is where the Party Central Committee and the State Council work, it’s the office, and also where I work and live,” “Ever since the founding of New China, it has been here: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and later Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao all worked here.”
● Returning the Hospitality Received at Mar-a-Lago in 2017
Xi Jinping emphasized that arranging this meeting here “is actually also in return for the hospitality you showed me at Mar-a-Lago in 2017.” Trump replied with “good.” Xi then noted that this place used to be part of an imperial garden and has a strong sense of history. “When I was walking over here with the President, we paused over there. The trees are all hundreds of years old. There’s one that is 490 years old.”
According to a live broadcast by foreign media, Xi Jinping personally guided Trump through Zhongnanhai, visiting places like 'Jinggu', and stressed that these areas were used by emperors. He invited Trump, saying, “Look at this tree, these two trees are joined together, and they’re over a hundred years old. All these trees are two or three hundred years old, and over there is a four-hundred-year-old one. In other places there are even thousand-year-old trees.”
Trump asked, when other heads of state or prime ministers visit Beijing, do you, as president, also receive them here? Xi Jinping said, “Very rarely. Previously, we never held foreign affairs activities here. Even after we started, it was still very rare. For example, (Russian President) Putin has been here.”
Trump said, “It’s a very beautiful place. I like it very much; I could get used to staying here. Maybe I won’t want to leave.”