Much attention is understandably given to multilateral meetings and bilateral summits, as in the Xi-Trump Summit at Mar-a-Lago. Even more important in our increasingly urbanized world will be to continue to look at and learn from what is happening on the ground in cities and surrounding areas even after the summiteers have left.

The best way for these two leaders to break the proverbial ice—and nurture a sincerely cooperative mood—could be to share personal experiences related to U.S.-China relations, including their family stories. Even from an outside observer’s perspective, some simple anecdotes could help illustrate these two leaders’ long-standing goodwill towards a healthy and constructive relationship between their respective nations.

China and the U.S. will hold their first summit meeting this week. Though the concrete schedule has not been released, there is no doubt that the North Korean nuclear issue will be a hot topic between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

At a press conference on March 30, Chinese spokesperson Lu Kang announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida from April 6-7.

"I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job. My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.” These are the words of Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State, the nation’s highest ranking diplomat. Tillerson’s candid comments come in light of his first trip to Asia where he met with leaders in Japan, South Korea and China.

Could Trump like Richard Nixon “echo like thunder” by unilaterally announcing a high tariff regime to balance U.S. trade deficit and break the WTO system? While some of Trump’s advisors would wave their heads affirmatively, the institutional and commercial leverage of the U.S today is much inferior from Nixon’s America that bended Europeans to follow her unilateral demands.

Trump’s ascension to power was bad news for Beijing, especially because his “Make America Great Again” vision collides with Xi’s “Chinese dream” to make this the “Chinese century.” Yet China thus far has not only escaped any punitive American counteraction on trade and security matters, but also the expected Trump-Xi bonhomie at Mar-a-Lago could advertise that the more things change, the more they stay the same in U.S. foreign policy.

The stakes for the first Xi-Trump summit are high—but so also is the opportunity to stabilize relations and set a positive tone for future interactions. President Xi and the Chinese side will come to the summit extremely well prepared on a wide range of complex issues confronting the two governments. The question is: how well prepared will the new American president be?

As an experienced businessman, Trump may not use words as thoughtfully as a typical politician, which sometimes is his strength rather than weakness. Words can be used as a tool in negotiations in different ways. The real question will be: How steadfast is his word when making deals?

Most of Trump’s rhetoric and new thinking about foreign relations have not materialized, and he basically has returned to the old track of conventional US diplomatic thinking. “Obsolete” NATO is once again the “unbreakable alliance”, and his attitude toward China is also now in line with previous US policy.