Chinese media said the first summit between President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Florida would emphasise stability, the Chinese government’s favourite term, with the focus on everything from tense trade issues to the increased strain of North Korea’s burgeoning nuclear ambitions.

“For those alarmed that uncertainties might arise from policy adjustments of the Trump administration, the meeting sends a positive and reassuring message that the two countries lay great stress on stability in their relationship,” the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.

The two-day meeting at the luxury Mar-a-Lago resort, beginning on Thursday, is a delicate one for Xi, who is used to closed-door sit-downs and will be keen to make sure the summit follows a carefully agreed, stability-focused script in order to maintain his stature atuniforms, scurrying in every direction, erecting tents, preparing a fire ring, setting up lawn chairs, all under the supervision of a brunette woman in her early thirties. I paid them little attention.

Sean parked at a campsite and began setting up his tent. He worked meticulously, paying attention to every detail, carefully hammering the tent stakes, evenly spaced, into the rich, dark earth, inserting the tent poles, raising the small, green tent to a perfectly formed A-frame. He unrolled his sleeping bag and laid it neatly out on the tent floor. He gathered stones and built a fire ring, digging a hole in the center of the ring to contain the fire. He removed firewood from the trunk of his car and stacked it in neat rows next to