Pandas then, pandas now: Trump-Xi are well past Nixon-era magic
Nifty23, 140.5077.41. Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund Direct-Growth.
Nifty23, 140.5077.41. Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund Direct-Growth.
Article outline
- What happened
- The key numbers
- Background
- The bottom line
Key points
- Donald Trump and Xi Jinping lately met in Washington to symbolize cooperation in US-China relations.
- Donald Trump and Xi Jinping went out of their way to create their latest summit in Washington look warm.
- The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.
- Pandas then, pandas now: Trump and Xi are well past Nixon-era magic.
Nifty23, 140.5077.41. Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund Direct-Growth. The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.
Pandas then, pandas now: Trump and Xi are well past Nixon-era magic. ET OnlineLast Updated: Sep 25, 2026, 08: 08: 00 PM IST.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping lately met in Washington to symbolize cooperation in US-China relations. The summit featured the announcement of two pandas to Zo Atlanta as a gesture of friendship. They extended a trade truce rather than resolving major economic disputes or tariffs. Despite strategic rivalry, both countries aim to maintain open channels for cooperation.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping went out of their way to create their latest summit in Washington look warm. While Xi brought a particularly cuddly reminder of a particularly different era in US-China relations — two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, bound for Zoo Atlanta, the White House ceremony was choreographed for smiles, handshakes and talk of cooperation. Xi called the pandas an "envoy of friendship" and remarked they would arrive within days. The gesture recalls the extraordinary role pandas played when the US President Richard Nixon opened the door to China in 1972. But the current relationship is a much harder one. While Washington and Beijing merely extended their trade truce by two months, leaving the most tough economic disputes for afterwards, the summit produced no diplomatic breakthrough. A panda returns to an old diplomatic show.
Pandas have an unusual place in the history of US-China relations since their political meaning began at almost exactly the moment modern relations between the two countries were being forged.
In short, pandas then, pandas now: Trump-Xi are well past Nixon is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.
