A photograph from the bilateral meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on 14 May 2026 has drawn widespread criticism for the complete absence of women from both delegations. The image, which shows rows of male officials and business executives, has been described as a stark display of patriarchal power in global diplomacy.
Criticism from Academics and Observers
Gita Gopinath, an economics professor at Harvard University, tweeted: "A painting of the end of meritocracy: A meeting of the two largest economies and not one woman at the table." The post garnered over 22,000 likes overnight. Speaking to the Guardian, Gopinath elaborated: "We have somehow gravitated back to this idea that what matters is your network and not your capabilities – and that matters in terms of whether or not you get a seat at the table." She added: "It's just inexplicable how you end up with a single-gender table, given the many talented women around the world."
Halima Kazem, associate director for Stanford University's program in feminist, gender and sexuality studies, compared the image to previous US-China summits under Barack Obama. "We've gone backward," she said. "Obama-era US-China summits included women at the table. Now neither superpower thinks women belong in the room where great power politics happens. This isn't just American failure – it's a bilateral signal that women's voices don't matter in shaping the global order."
Contrast with Previous Summits
Women seated at previous US-China bilateral meetings during Obama's presidency included Liu Yandong, China's then vice-premier, as well as Susan Rice, US national security adviser, and Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state. Kazem pointed to the type of power being ostensibly signaled by both sides: "This wasn't about lack of qualified women – both countries have plenty in their diplomatic and security establishments. This was a choice about what kind of authority to project: masculine, militarized, and exclusionary."
"When both superpowers perform power this way, they're jointly defining what 'serious' diplomacy looks like and who gets excluded from it," she added.
Women Accompanying Trump
Despite the absence of women at the bilateral meeting, a small handful of women did accompany Trump on his two-day visit to Beijing, including Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, as well as Jane Fraser, the Citigroup CEO, and Dina Powell McCormick, the Meta president. However, their presence did little to offset the criticism of the all-male table at the main event.
