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The Lecturer and Philosopher King: Xi Jinping Behind Closed Doors | Encounters with other world leaders reveal a side of China’s leader that the public rarely sees, and offer clues to how he will approach President Trump in Beijing.
- David Pierson | May 13, 2026
More than halfway through his third term as China’s leader, Xi Jinping still remains one of the most opaque figures in global politics, his views on rivals and partners inferred from the tightly controlled choreography of his public appearances.
But in private meetings with foreign leaders, captured in the accounts of those who were there, along with the occasional hot mic, a sharper portrait emerges. It is of a leader who has no close rivals for power in China, who does not hesitate to lecture less powerful leaders, and who
carries himself as a philosopher king in the mold of ancient Chinese rulers.
And by at least one account,
Mr. Xi formed his verdict of President Trump nearly a decade ago — a judgment likely to have shaped his approach to global affairs ever since, including how he handles Mr. Trump this week in Beijing.
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It was late 2016, and Mr. Trump had just stunned the world weeks earlier by winning the U.S. presidential election. Mr. Xi was meeting President Obama for the final time at a summit in Lima, Peru, and he had questions.
Mr. Xi seemed baffled as to how American voters could choose someone so unconventional, according to Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration who attended the meeting.
Mr. Obama tried to explain to Mr. Xi that Mr. Trump’s rise was a sign of economic frustration in the United States, in part over the loss of manufacturing jobs to China and the theft of intellectual property. Mr. Xi, in Mr. Rhodes’s telling, was displeased with the explanation.
He put down his pen, folded his arms and said: “If an immature leader throws the world into chaos, then the world will know who to blame.”
Now, as he heads into a summit with Mr. Trump in Beijing, Mr. Xi will want to present China as a stable and strong global power, analysts say, while being conciliatory enough to preserve a fragile trade truce with Mr. Trump.
“I expect that Xi will show Trump respect but not flatter him,” said Susan Shirk, the author of “Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise.”
“The contrast with Trump’s unilateral and disruptive actions will be implicit, not explicit,” she added.
DANTE'S WORDS: We must say, we see the very realistic fears many people have that Trump will get rolled over, walk away and call it a win. We believe that these fears are keeping many people awake at night. Realistic fears based on a public record of Trump doing just that.
DANTE'S WORDS: Any scenario we can see, has the USA eventually coming out a loser.
