Meeting builds on a thousand reasons to be good partners

The first meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump carries special significance because it will ascertain what sort of China-US relations the new administration in Washington wants, and whether the two sides can be on the same page over where to steer the all-important relationship in the years to come.

After all, although Beijing has been persistent in pursuing mutually beneficial ties through win-win cooperation, and made that intention very clear, what it has seen and heard from Washington lately have been rather inconsistent, at times contradictory. Most upsetting of all were the confusing signals about what Washington is really after when it comes to its relations with Beijing, especially in matters that the latter holds as its core interests, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.

It is thus encouraging to see the meeting going as well as it could, and both parties seem equally enthusiastic about the constructive relationship they have promised to cultivate. Not just the Chinese officials present at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, but also other Chinese might have been filled with a sense of optimism about China-US relations hearing Trump's grandchildren sing the famous traditional Chinese ballad Jasmine Flower, reciting a Tang-Dynasty (618-907) poem and the Three-Character Primer.