Peng Liyuan and Melania Trump opened an unusually personal channel in US-China relations during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit to Washington, with their frequent and apparently spontaneous interactions providing a softer dimension to a summit dominated by trade tensions, artificial intelligence and other strategic issues.
The South China Morning Post reported that the two first ladies followed a parallel programme of conversations, cultural activities and public appearances that placed personal interaction alongside formal diplomacy. US-China relations expert Sun Chenghao said their direct engagement presented “a more natural and personable side of bilateral relations” and sent “a clear signal that both sides are willing to understand each other”.
One of the most closely watched encounters came at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, after Xi and Peng arrived in the United States. Peng and Melania walked together along the red carpet and briefly chatted without an interpreter. The exchange attracted particular attention because of the apparent ease with which the two women communicated directly.
Peng later appeared to mouth the word “wonderful” after a military band performed the American and Chinese national anthems. The moment, together with her conversation with Melania, generated widespread online discussion about Peng’s English. Her language skills, however, were not new to her public role. In 2015, she delivered a speech at the United Nations on girls’ education and gender equality in English.
Peng has also spent much of her public life operating through cultural diplomacy. A celebrated soprano who became widely known as a military singer, she has accompanied Xi on overseas trips since he became president in 2013. Music, education and cultural activities have formed important elements of her international public engagements, giving her a role distinct from the formal negotiations conducted by governments and diplomats.
That role was particularly visible at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, where Peng and Melania attended a performance by a youth choir singing Chinese songs. Peng smiled and sang along to “Jasmine Flower”, one of China’s best-known folk tunes, before calling out “bravo” when the performance ended.
“Jasmine Flower” has a long history in Chinese musical culture and is one of the melodies most closely associated internationally with China. Its use during the visit allowed the Chinese side to present an aspect of Chinese culture without requiring discussion of contentious policy issues. The setting also provided a different kind of interaction between the two countries, based on music and a shared audience rather than negotiations between officials.
For Sun, these exchanges have a practical diplomatic value. “Cultural and people-to-people exchanges could complement formal summit diplomacy,” said Sun, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy in Beijing. Such encounters, he said, connect the two countries through experiences that are more familiar to ordinary people and can “lower the psychological barrier to understanding the other country”.
Sun also argued that cultural encounters can allow people in both countries to identify areas of resonance between their societies, potentially providing wider public support for formal diplomacy. Unlike negotiations over tariffs, technology or strategic competition, cultural activities offer opportunities for interaction in which the immediate subject is not a dispute between governments.
The first ladies’ engagement continued beyond the museum visit. Melania led preparations for Thursday’s state dinner, while on Friday, the final day of Xi’s visit, Peng and Melania were seated together at the centre of a tea gathering in the White House’s Red Room.
Their visibility throughout the programme reflected the growing use of spouses of national leaders as participants in international public diplomacy. Their activities do not determine government policy, but they can create settings in which political relationships are presented through hospitality, culture and personal contact. During a summit involving two of the world’s most consequential powers, those settings provided a separate channel for displaying civility and familiarity.
The limits of such diplomacy were also acknowledged by Sun. For the moment, he said, interactions of this kind may be most effective in generating “attention and curiosity”, particularly through Peng’s English exchanges and her interaction with the youth choir. Whether that curiosity develops into lasting understanding, he said, depends on subsequent exchanges and “the broader policy environment in both countries”.
The distinction is important because the first ladies’ appearances occurred alongside negotiations and discussions involving issues that extend well beyond cultural relations. Their meetings did not replace those formal engagements; instead, they provided a parallel public dimension to the summit, in which conversation, music, language and hospitality became the principal means through which the United States and China presented a more personal side of their relationship.
