China specialist Yu Maochun pointed out that diplomatic relations are like a play, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always been obsessed with hosting US-China summits. He warned that this is one of the CCP’s customary deception strategies.
Yu Maochun, Director of the Hudson Institute’s China Studies Center, recently wrote in The Washington Times that the United States cannot indulge in fantasies, thinking that diplomatic means alone can tame a regime built on lies and fear like the CCP.
Last week, US President Trump had a lengthy conversation with CCP leader Xi Jinping. The President accepted Xi’s invitation to visit Beijing, while also inviting Xi to visit the US, claiming Xi had verbally agreed, but the official CCP announcement conspicuously omitted this detail.
Yu Maochun, who served as the chief China advisor at the State Department during Trump’s first term, stated that the US and the CCP have completely different views and goals regarding summits. The US President aims to address specific issues with China through the summit, while the CCP leadership seeks to use the summit to “reshape” the overall framework of US-China policy.
Yu Maochun emphasized that the US-China summits held in Beijing, in particular, have long been crucial means for the CCP to consolidate domestic power and demonstrate international influence. For example:
In 1972, Mao Zedong used President Nixon’s visit to China to conceal the devastation of the Cultural Revolution in China and restore the CCP’s legitimacy.
From 1978 to 1979, Deng Xiaoping played the “US card,” manipulating the gullible President Carter to shape himself as the “supreme leader” of the CCP, despite being embroiled in intense internal power struggles at that time.
After the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989, CCP leaders again used contact with the US President to whitewash the atrocities and seek legitimacy for their power control.
According to this seasoned China expert, Xi is simply repeating this pattern, but with greater ambitions and commitment.
“For the CCP, summits are not tools for negotiation or showing goodwill, but weapons of narrative warfare—carefully crafted scripts aimed at deceiving, undermining opponents’ morale, and controlling the situation. The significance of these summits goes far beyond symbolism,” he said. “Every summit held according to the CCP’s will strengthens the influence of this regime dedicated to reshaping the global order with authoritarianism at its core.”
Yu Maochun believes that the current CCP leader is trapped in a dilemma of his own making. The “zero-COVID” policy he personally directed has severely damaged the economy, and crackdowns on private enterprises have driven away innovation and capital. Now, the youth unemployment rate in China is skyrocketing, and the real estate market is on the verge of collapse.
“More and more Chinese people see through the CCP’s ‘glorious and righteous’ myth, and Xi is well aware of this,” Yu Maochun wrote. “Therefore, the summit with the US President is crucial for Xi—not as a matter of diplomacy but as a matter of survival.”
If the US President visits China, it will be widely publicized by the CCP to demonstrate its position on the global stage. Subsequently, the CCP will use its tightly controlled media to flood the public with images of political glamour and applause, attempting to drown out internal discontent with nationalistic fervor.
Yu Maochun cautioned that what the CCP pursues is not dialogue, but a consensus illusion.
He pointed out that this illusion is not only directed at the Chinese domestic audience but also directly targets US Asian allies: Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, India, and Vietnam.
These countries are facing increasing military and economic pressures from Beijing and see the US as their only reliance to counter Communist Chinese aggression.
According to Yu Maochun, a US President’s visit to China may be utilized by the CCP to sow discord between the US and its Asian allies, sending a troubling signal: “The US is not serious, the US can be appeased, the US will relent.”
The familiar summit routine of the CCP involves escalating tensions first and then seeking remedies under the guise of “cooperation.” In the past, the CCP has manufactured tensions by intercepting US aircraft, intimidating Taiwan, and harassing ships in the South China Sea before extending diplomatic olive branches to the US.
“This is not a politician’s strategy—it is Leninist manipulation,” Yu Maochun said. He pointed out that this is the carefully designed outcome of the CCP, employing strategic concessions and softened rhetoric that have repeatedly proven effective. Previous US administrations have established crisis hotlines with Beijing, resumed dialogues, or signed vague communiques following incidents.
However, these crisis hotlines proved ineffective as the Chinese side abandoned them during moments of crisis. For instance, in 1999 when the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was bombed or during the EP-3 spy plane incident in 2001, the Chinese military directly refused to answer calls from the US.
Yu Maochun stated that the establishment of these mechanisms by the CCP and the US is not about resolving crises but rather for public relations, serving as bait to lure the US into compliance.
He said that there is a fundamental disparity in the diplomatic approaches between the US and China, as the US operates in the substantive realm—identifying issues, negotiating conditions, and implementing solutions—while the CCP exerts itself in the perceptual, ideological, and power domains.
By utilizing diplomacy for deception, the CCP’s summits are not forums but stages for the CCP, and the dialogues are not exchanges but rigid lectures.
Yu Maochun said that the core message the CCP conveys is, “The West is in decline, America is to blame, China is a victim, and only the Chinese Communist Party can lead the world towards order and stability.”
“This is not diplomacy, but deception,” he wrote.
“The competition between the US and China cannot be resolved with a casual handshake after tea. It is a confrontation between two irreconcilable systems—one rooted in freedom, transparency, and the rule of law, and the other in control, surveillance, and violence,” he added.
Yu Maochun warned that the US must recognize this reality and not continue to indulge in fantasies, thinking that diplomatic means alone can control a regime built on lies and fear.
“The Beijing summit is not an opportunity to ease relations but a test of both sides’ wills, and both sides must understand this,” he concluded.