{"id":11490,"date":"2026-05-15T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/?p=11490"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:06:23","slug":"video-of-donald-trump-failing-secret-power-move-with-chinese-president-goes-viral-its-not-the-only-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/2026\/05\/15\/video-of-donald-trump-failing-secret-power-move-with-chinese-president-goes-viral-its-not-the-only-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of Donald Trump failing ‘secret power move’ with Chinese president goes viral – it’s not the only one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The secret power moves at the heart of Trump and Xi’s summit<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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The stakes have never been higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words Nikki Peach<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"Donald<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All eyes are on Donald Trump during his state visit to China at a time of heightened geopolitical tension. When the president landed in Beijing, he was greeted by a gun salute, cheering children and a troop parade, but it wasn\u2019t long before he sat down with Xi Jinping for almost two hours of high stakes talks.
 
Trump has described the talks as \u2018great\u2019, however Xi warned of \u2018conflict\u2019 with the US over Taiwan. The self-governed island is one of many points of contention between the two nations, along with tariffs, competition over tech and the ongoing war in Iran.
 
The president might be doing all he can to control the optics of this visit, including a historic 15 second handshake outside China\u2019s Great Hall of the People, but the world cannot be fooled into thinking this is a friendly catch up. It\u2019s Trump and Xi\u2019s seventh face-to-face meeting since 2017 and it is arguably more important than ever for this meeting to go well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Donald<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018President Xi has the upper hand, literally and figuratively, when the two shake hands,\u2019 body language expert Inbaal Honigman told Lad Bible. \u2018It is worth noting that taking the lower position in a handshake is kind of a Trump special. [\u2026] He\u2019s most recently been seen shaking the King\u2019s hand in the same way, and his body language is identical with Russian leader Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his former advisor Elon Musk.\u2019
 
A strong handshake can only take Trump so far, however. It is no secret that the aforementioned tensions between the two nations pose a risk of war and Xi reportedly issued a warning to Trump in the form of a reference to the \u2018Thucydides Trap\u2019 during their conversation about Taiwan.
 
China considers Taiwan part of its territory, which the US supports via its \u2018One China\u2019 policy, however the US also supports Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act. If China attempted to blockade or invade Taiwan, the US would likely respond. Similarly, if Taiwan formally declared independence, China would respond with force. Xi therefore asked the president \u2018whether the two countries can transcend the Thucydides Trap and forge a new model for relations between major powers\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Cooperation benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both’<\/p>Xi Jinping<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"Trump<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The term, originating from ancient Greek history, refers to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established power, it often results in war. \u2018Cooperation benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both,\u2019 Xi said ahead of their meeting. \u2018The two countries should be partners rather than rivals, achieve success together and pursue common prosperity, and chart a correct path for major-country relations in the new era.\u2019 Adding, \u2018The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations.\u2019
 
Of course, another issue that the world will want an update on is the war in Iran. Following the US and Israel\u2019s coordinated attack in Iran in February, conflict has spread throughout the Middle East and rocked global markets. Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the UAE, a major maritime choke point for world energy trade, has been largely blocked by Iran since the conflict began. Since 13 April, the US has simultaneously blockaded Iranian ports. Prior to this, approximately 20% of the world\u2019s liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
 
Trump and Xi have agreed the passageway \u2018must remain open\u2019 and Iran \u2018can never have a nuclear weapon\u2019, according to a White House readout of their meeting. Iran also expressed a desire for China to reiterate its terms for a possible peace deal with the US. \u2018The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy,\u2019 the readout continued. \u2018President Xi also made clear China\u2019s opposition to the militarisation of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China\u2019s dependence on the Strait in the future. Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Strait<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the meeting, US Secretary of State Marc Rubio said on Fox News that \u2018we\u2019ve made clear to them that any support for Iran would obviously be detrimental for our relationship\u2019. He added that China has a vested interest in resolving the conflict\u2019s impact on oil shipments and \u2018we hope to convince them to play a more active role\u2019.
 
What is curious, albeit unsurprising, is that the White House report of Xi and Trump\u2019s meeting did not mention Taiwan at all, while Chinese media has reported that Xi raised the topic. Considering the fact this summit is set to be one of the most consequential encounters for years, it does not bode well that both sides are reporting different versions of events \u2013 especially since the future of global trade, tensions in Taiwan and Iran, and the future of big tech are all at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos: Getty<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stakes have never been higher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"acf":{"article_authors":"Nikki Peach","send_as_draft":false,"send_as_paid":true,"send_as_featured":true},"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11531,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions\/11531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/graziav2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}