CHINA/CONGRESS/FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “US President Donald Trump said he called Chinese President Xi Jinping a ‘king’ during a state visit to Beijing in 2017 and that the Communist Party leader appeared to appreciate the remark. Speaking Tuesday [4-2-19] at the National Republican Congressional Committee spring dinner in Washington, Trump said Xi had denied he was a king but the US leader insisted…Trump made his visit to China in November 2017, just months before the country’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, removed the two-term limit on the Chinese presidency in March 2018. The move cleared the way for Xi to serve indefinitely as China’s head of state, strengthening his grip on power. China abolished monarchical rule in 1912 when the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, Pu Yi, was overthrown to establish the Republic of China. Trump was given red-carpet treatment during his visit to Beijing, becoming the first foreign leader to dine in the Forbidden City since the founding of modern China. Following Trump’s trip to China the relationship between the two countries has grown rockier.”
–Ben Westcott and Nikki Carvajal, “US President Trump says he called Xi Jinping the ‘king’ of China,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 2, 2019 10:39 pm