Kathrine Frich
The Chinese delegation also canceled a planned working lunch.
State visits are usually a marathon of handshakes, photo ops, and back-to-back meetings.
Presidents prepare for grueling schedules that stretch from early morning until late at night.
But sometimes, even the most powerful figures on the global stage need to hit the pause button.
Unusual summit demands
During his recent trip to Washington, Chinese officials made some highly specific requests for President Xi Jinping. They wanted to guarantee the 73-year-old leader had plenty of time to rest between meetings with President Donald Trump.
The Chinese team asked for a private room in the West Wing, according to The Wall Street Journal cited by Digi24. Only his wife, Peng Liyuan, was permitted inside to be with him.
His own chief of staff was entirely locked out. These unusual details provide a rare look at the physical limits of the aging Chinese leader.
Clearing the schedule
The Chinese delegation also canceled a planned working lunch between the two presidents. They made this sudden change about a month before the September summit.
This cancellation left a massive five-hour gap in the middle of the only full day of talks. While his guest rested, Trump used the downtime to give television interviews to Fox News.
Dennis Wilder is a former director at the National Security Council who organized past state visits. He told the newspaper that keeping the American hosts waiting like this was entirely unprecedented.
“We’ve never done anything like this. It’s unusual,” Wilder said.
A tight grip
His overall public schedule was incredibly light. Xi spent a mere ten minutes inside the National Archives on his final day, and he attended no formal events at all on his first night in town.
Observers also noticed Xi leaning heavily on his wife while climbing stairs alongside Trump. Chinese state media quickly edited those physical struggles out of their television broadcasts.
Health questions have surrounded the Chinese president for years. Just a few weeks earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Xi skipped a major dinner at a summit in India because he felt unwell.
Minxin Pei is a professor who studies Chinese elites. “There is a huge difference between a leader who cannot fully function due to a severe stroke and a leader who has physical disabilities but can function mentally,” Pei told the publication.
