By Mei Mei Chu
BEIJING, May 12 (Reuters) – Chinese emperors once prayed for bumper crops under the blue-tiled, triple-eaved roof of Beijing’s Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, in sacred rites affirming their mandate to rule.
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will walk the same imperial ground within Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, as both leaders seek a different kind of harvest from a high-stakes summit.
For Xi, hosting Trump there offers a stage rich in messages about China’s endurance and civilisational depth. For Trump, the setting carries a more literal resonance: agriculture will be high on his list of priorities, with U.S. farmers looking for bigger Chinese purchases of soybeans, other crops — and meat.
“As a Chinese leader, this is the perfect backdrop to show the depth of Chinese history and how long it is, how sophisticated it is,” said Lars Ulrik Thom, a Beijing-based historian and founder of historical walking tour company Beijing Postcards.
Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday ahead of his meetings on Thursday and Friday. The two leaders are due to visit the Temple of Heaven on Thursday, according to the White House.
Trump heads to China with his ambitions blunted by court rulings on tariffs, narrowing his goals to a few deals on beans, beef and Boeing jets, and enlisting China’s help to resolve his unpopular Iran war, analysts say.
XI COULD PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS FOR POMP-LOVING TRUMP
In 2017, Xi and his wife gave Trump and the first lady a rare private tour of the Forbidden City, the ancient home of China’s emperors.
Analysts are watching whether Xi, who enters the talks projecting more confidence than Trump, will once again pull out all the stops for the mercurial U.S. leader known for his love of pomp and pageantry.
Located some 7 km (4.35 miles) south of the Forbidden City, the temple was built in 1420 under the same Ming emperor responsible for the imperial palace construction.
Surrounded by ancient pine and cypress trees, it is today a popular tourist site and a park where Beijingers practice tai chi, play chess or dance.
During the dynastic rule, emperors would once a year process from the Forbidden City to the Temple of Heaven, with an entourage of thousands of men and elephant carriages, to perform a religious ceremony that affirmed their right to rule.
That right was not unconditional: poor harvests, famine or disorder could reflect poorly on an emperor’s standing.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Temple’s best-known landmark, was rebuilt in the late 1800s with tall redwood imported from the U.S., said Thom.
U.S. FARMERS WANT CHINA TO BUY MORE OF THEIR HARVEST
After the tour, Trump will be looking to score bigger commitments from Xi on purchases of soybeans, grains and meat.
China is the top market for U.S. farmers, taking about $24 billion of their goods in 2024 before Trump took office. Beijing has frozen much of that trade and scaled back its need for U.S. supplies, using it as a powerful lever against Trump’s tariffs.
Soybean farmers will be watching how China fulfils last year’s commitment to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually until 2028. Bigger Chinese purchases could appease distressed U.S. farmers, who are among Trump’s biggest electorate, ahead of November’s midterm elections.
For Xi, the venue offers more than imperial scenery.
“It’s a very good backdrop to telling Donald Trump and the world that China’s here and has been here for thousands of years,” said Thom.
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Antoni Slodkowski, Alexandra Hudson)
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