Trump’s disruption to TV coverage during Xi visit frustrates Chinese officials

Kylie Cooper/Reuters

President Donald Trump spent months plotting ways to impress Xi Jinping.

But even after enlisting two military bands, ordering up a flyover, speeding construction of his new helipad and rolling out a literal red carpet, Trump ended up directly undercutting what the Chinese leader craved most: Network television cameras.

Trump’s abrupt ban on three news outlets — including CNN — disrupted months of careful planning for Xi’s state visit, frustrating both US and Chinese officials over the limited coverage of a summit meant to showcase the two men together in front of a global audience, according to multiple people familiar with the dynamic.

The suspension of pooled TV coverage for the entirety of Xi’s first day at the White House caused consternation among the Chinese leader’s allies, who had hoped the trip would broadcast him widely as a peer of the president of the world’s most powerful nation.

For Trump, who had waited months to show off in front of Xi, it simply marked the latest indignity amid a particularly turbulent stretch for his ailing presidency.

“The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP,’ they refused to be there,” Trump vented Thursday on his social media platform.

The episode amounted to a self-inflicted wound during what Trump otherwise envisioned as a multiday spectacular welcoming of China’s authoritarian leader, complete with ceremonial events showing off his White House renovations and a tour of the US’ most treasured founding documents.

It also served as an example of the wider repercussions of Trump’s personal feud with the press, threatening to inject fresh tension into a diplomatic relationship with China that the administration has worked to keep stable ahead of November’s midterm elections.

After Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House last week, the Chinese embassy contacted several US television networks to discuss how the move would affect coverage of Xi’s visit, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

And despite China’s state media outlets dispatching more than 100 staffers to cover the summit, Chinese foreign ministry adviser Wu Xinbo told CNN Friday that it had been “regrettable” that more footage hadn’t made it to the American public.

“It could have helped improve the atmosphere in US-China relations,” Wu said.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Every aspect of Xi’s overseas trips, especially any summit with a US president, is meticulously planned and media coverage is seen as a critical component to highlight China’s stature and influence around the world.

Chinese officials, of course, can dictate their own state media coverage to the slightest detail — but they also want host countries and international media coverage to add legitimacy and reinforce their narrative, with quotes and video clips from US and international media often used in the past for that purpose.

In a statement, White House communications director Steven Cheung dismissed concerns about the lack of pooled TV coverage.

“The television pool had the opportunity and access to broadcast the state visit to the American people. They chose not to honor that vital responsibility,” he said. “Instead, many other media outlets, including new media, stepped up to fill that void, and tens of millions of views were achieved, in spite of the pool’s juvenile boycott.”

Still, Trump on Thursday had privately indicated his unhappiness with the extent of the coverage and desire to have the TV pool back, one source familiar with his comments said. That coverage was jointly suspended by the networks after the president banned CNN, which is one of five networks in that pool rotation. It meant video coverage during Thursday’s events was incredibly limited. Some print outlets also chose to delay publishing still photographs taken as part of the pool, in a gesture of solidarity.

The TV pool resumed its coverage Friday after CNN’s access to the White House was restored, allowing the broadcast networks to capture and widely distribute Trump and Xi’s tea meeting at the White House and subsequent visit to the National Archives.

The two leaders made only limited remarks on Friday, though Trump noted at one point that he appreciated the coverage: “It’s been very fair.”

Yet for a visit heavy on pageantry, much of the White House’s theatrics came earlier in the week. After a visit to Beijing in May that Trump praised as “an amazing period of time,” the president had quickly sought to return the favor, ultimately agreeing to host Xi for a formal state visit — the highest tier of diplomatic reception. It marked the first state visit for a Chinese leader in 11 years.

More unusual, according to foreign policy experts, was the limited expectation on either side that the summit would produce any major agreements or progress on a host of key economic and political issues.

Trump instead sought to use the visit largely as a showcase, granting Xi a rare tarmac greeting that included a cannon salute and an array of fighter jets, and on Thursday holding two military reviews on the White House grounds before concluding with a state dinner attended by high-profile business executives.

“The deliverable was a good time had by all, or something,” said one former Trump State Department official, summing up the overall view of the summit.

Even by those limited expectations, though, Trump’s sudden decision days earlier to ban news outlets from the White House and spark a First Amendment showdown left allies and some officials confounded. Across their time together, Trump did not publicly address the media ban and its fallout with Xi, who repeatedly lauded the visit in his own brief remarks.

While the Xi visit still received some coverage, including from the White House’s own live stream, a Trump adviser told CNN early Thursday that the timing of the ban was particularly inopportune.

“To have kicked this fight right before the Xi visit and then basically stepped on their own coverage just doesn’t suggest great planning,” said Edgard Kagan, a former senior State Department official on East Asia issues during the Biden and Trump administrations.

“You have the Chinese coming in with momentum because they’re showing their international standing — and the US looking very clearly like internationally we have growing friction, and domestically like we can’t even get media coverage.”

凯莉·库珀/路透社

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普花了数月时间策划如何给习近平留下深刻印象。

但即便特朗普征召了两支军乐队，下令进行飞行表演，加快建造新的直升机停机坪，并铺设了真正的红地毯，最终他还是直接破坏了中国领导人最渴望的东西：电视摄像机。

据多位知情人士透露，特朗普突然禁止三家新闻媒体（包括 CNN）进行报道，扰乱了数月来为习近平国事访问所做的精心筹备，令美中两国官员都感到沮丧，因为此次峰会的报道有限，而峰会的目的是向全球观众展示两国领导人的共同形象。

习近平访问白宫第一天，美方全程暂停电视联播，这令中国领导人的盟友感到不安。他们原本希望此次访问能广泛宣传习近平与世界最强大国家总统平起平坐的形象。

对于等待数月才得以在习近平面前炫耀的特朗普来说，这只不过是他岌岌可危的总统任期内，在一段格外动荡的时期里，所遭受的最新羞辱。

“这场活动非常精彩——实际上是为电视而举办的，但因为他们是假新闻媒体，而且因为他们知道活动会有多精彩，所以他们不想让‘特朗普’获得任何赞誉，因此他们拒绝出席，”特朗普周四在他的社交媒体平台上发泄道。

这一事件无异于自导自演，而特朗普原本设想的是一场为期数天的盛大欢迎中国威权领导人的活动，其中包括展示白宫翻新成果的仪式性活动以及参观美国最珍贵的建国文献。

这也体现了特朗普与媒体之间的个人恩怨所产生的更广泛影响，有可能给美国政府在11月中期选举前努力维持稳定的中美外交关系带来新的紧张局势。

上周，特朗普禁止 CNN、MS NOW 和 Politico 进入白宫后，中国大使馆联系了几家美国电视网，讨论此举将如何影响对习近平访问的报道。两名知情人士告诉 CNN。

尽管中国官方媒体派出了 100 多名工作人员报道峰会，但中国外交部顾问吴新波周五告诉 CNN，令人“遗憾的是”的是，更多的画面并没有被美国公众看到。

吴先生表示：“这或许有助于改善中美关系氛围。”

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

习近平每次出访的各个方面，特别是与美国总统的峰会，都经过精心策划，媒体报道被视为凸显中国在世界范围内地位和影响力的关键组成部分。

当然，中国官员可以对本国媒体的报道进行细致入微的控制——但他们也希望东道国和国际媒体的报道能够增加其合法性并强化其叙事，过去经常会引用美国和国际媒体的言论和视频片段来达到这一目的。

白宫通讯主任史蒂文·张在一份声明中驳斥了有关缺乏联合电视转播的担忧。

“电视转播联队有机会和渠道向美国人民直播这次国事访问。他们却选择不履行这项至关重要的责任，”他说。“相反，包括新媒体在内的许多其他媒体挺身而出填补了这一空白，尽管电视转播联队幼稚地抵制，但最终仍获得了数千万的观看量。”

一位知情人士透露，特朗普周四私下里曾表示对媒体报道的范围不满，并希望恢复电视联播。此前，由于特朗普禁止了CNN（五家参与联播的电视台之一），各家电视台联合暂停了相关报道。这意味着周四活动的视频报道极其有限。一些纸媒也选择推迟刊登联播期间拍摄的照片，以示声援。

周五，在 CNN 恢复了对白宫的报道权限后，电视联播网恢复了报道，使得各大广播电视网得以拍摄并广泛传播特朗普和习近平在白宫的茶话会以及随后对国家档案馆的访问。

周五，两位领导人只发表了有限的讲话，不过特朗普一度表示，他很欣赏媒体的报道：“报道非常公正。”

然而，尽管此次访问仪式隆重，白宫的大部分“表演”却在本周早些时候就已经上演。特朗普总统在五月份访问北京后，称赞那是一段“令人惊叹的时光”。此后，他迅速寻求回访，最终同意接待习近平主席进行正式国事访问——这是最高级别的外交接待。这也是11年来中国领导人首次对美国进行国事访问。

外交政策专家认为，更不寻常的是，双方都对峰会能否在诸多关键经济和政治问题上达成任何重大协议或取得任何进展抱有有限的期望。

相反，特朗普试图将此次访问主要作为一场作秀，给予习近平罕见的停机坪欢迎，包括鸣炮致敬和一系列战斗机亮相，并在周四于白宫草坪上举行了两次阅兵式，最后以一场有知名商界人士出席的国宴结束访问。

一位前特朗普政府国务院官员总结了峰会的总体情况，他说：“峰会的成果是大家都玩得很开心，或者类似的事情。”

即便按照这些有限的预期来看，特朗普几天前突然禁止新闻媒体进入白宫，引发了一场关于宪法第一修正案的对峙，这令他的盟友和一些官员感到困惑。在与习近平会面期间，特朗普始终没有公开提及媒体禁令及其对习近平的影响，而习近平则在简短的讲话中多次赞扬了此次访问。

尽管习近平的访问仍然获得了一些报道，包括白宫自己的直播，但特朗普的一位顾问周四早些时候告诉 CNN，禁令的时机尤其不合适。

“在习近平访问前夕挑起这场争端，然后基本上破坏了他们自己的报道，这表明他们的计划并不周全，”曾在拜登和特朗普政府时期担任国务院东亚事务高级官员的埃德加·卡根说道。

“中国正以强劲的势头进入市场，因为他们正在展现自己的国际地位——而美国的情况则非常明显，我们在国际上摩擦日益加剧，在国内我们甚至无法获得媒体报道。”