Photo of US-China delegation criticized over absence of women: ‘masculine, militarized and exclusionary’

Key Points:

• The US-China bilateral meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People featured no women at the main negotiation table, drawing criticism as a symbol of patriarchal power in global diplomacy.
• Harvard professor Gita Gopinath condemned the all-male table as a regression from meritocracy, emphasizing that capable women were excluded in favor of networks and traditional power dynamics.
• Stanford’s Halima Kazem highlighted that previous US-China summits during the Obama era included women leaders, suggesting the current exclusion signals a deliberate projection of masculine, militarized authority.
• Both experts argue that the absence of women is not due to a lack of qualified candidates but a conscious choice reflecting what kind of power and diplomacy is being prioritized by the two superpowers.
• Although no women were present at the negotiation table, a few accompanied Trump during his Beijing visit, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and prominent business leaders Jane Fraser and Dina Powell McCormick.