Xi's statecraft vs Trump's sales pitch

US President Donald Trump's attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was a hotly anticipated affair because the last US president to attend the forum was Bill Clinton in 2000. And since Chinese President Xi Jinping's attendance at the forum last year was a big hit, political leaders, and senior movers and shakers from the world's economic and financial sectors were all busy making comparisons between the substance and performance of the two presidents who are leading the world's largest and second-largest economies.

Based on the contents, visions and ambitions contained in the two presidents' speeches a year apart, the distinctions were quite visible.

Last year, Xi was able to demonstrate statesmanship throughout his speech while this year, Trump succeeded in portraying himself at best as a good salesman of the American dream as he rallied business leaders to "bring business, jobs and investments to the United States". That was not surprising, as Trump is a businessman first and a politician second.