Like Vajpayee then, Xi is now convinced that there is more to gain by meeting the US President and bilateral relations in the future could not be held hostage to disputes and disagreements anchored in pride alone. Unlike India, China has a closed political system. So, one can only speculate if there was opposition within the Communist Party of China (CPC) to Xi’s visit under the shadow of new penalties, just as in Vajpayee’s BJP. 

A straw in the wind was the presence of top CPC leaders on the Chinese side at the State dinner in honour of Xi. It was only when the White House released the guest list for the dinner that those outside the official framework on both sides realised that Xi had brought along party apparatchiks as part of his delegation to Washington. The White House’s guest details listed these apparatchiks as belonging to the CPC and not the Chinese government.

Conceivably conceding to the party’s supremacy over the government, Xi wore a Mao suit at the black-tie dinner, as did the CPC officials. If Xi was under flak from the party—like Vajpayee was—bringing the ‘comrades’ to see for themselves what was at stake in the bilateral engagement and donning a Mao suit—which is high on symbolism—was diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. The importance of these symbols appears to have totally escaped attention in India, where the bandhgala national dress has been devalued by its routine overuse, unlike China’s Mao suits. 

Instead of rubbishing the Trump-Xi talks as inconsequential, Indians must introspect on Xi’s gestures—like in the bygone Mao Zedong era—and ask themselves if every action of their own leadership has a time and place while dealing with the only superpower today.

The Vajpayee-Clinton reciprocal visits laid the foundations of today’s India-US relations. Their successors, Manmohan Singh and George W Bush, built on those foundations to a point where the US became India’s foremost foreign policy priority. So will Trump’s May 13-15 State visit to China and Xi’s return visit last month turn out to be, as events unfold during the rest of their presidencies. Two more meetings between them are planned this year: one in Shenzhen next month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting and another at the Miami G20 summit in December.