New York City — President Trump’s state visit to China this week for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping has garnered palpable excitement amongst the Chinese community in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing, home to one of the largest Asian populations in the U.S.
Mandarin is the language of choice at the markets and shops lining one of the main thoroughfares in Flushing, and even Vietnamese and Malaysian residents prefer the Chinese dialect to English. CBS News spoke to two dozen people, mostly from China, but some from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
“A strong U.S. and a strong China benefits everyone,” one man who has resided in Queens for 34 years told CBS News.
An American citizen in his 70s born in China, the man has memories of a time when China was more open to the West. Speaking in Mandarin, he expressed hopes of closer relations between China and the U.S., and seemed undaunted by the obstacles to such a rapprochement, namely the Iran war, the tension surrounding the Taiwan issue, tariffs and trade.
Taiwan has emerged as the top priority for Xi, but the Taiwanese people in Flushing who spoke to CBS News expressed strong feelings about Taiwanese independence.
“China and Taiwan have nothing in common,” said a Taiwanese-born man sitting in the sun eating hot pot.
Most of the Chinese-born people who spoke to CBS News declined to talk about their perspectives on Xi.
One man born in Hong Kong said he hopes Xi allows for more freedoms in the future for people in mainland China, where his older sister lives. He said he also worries about decreased freedoms in Hong Kong now that China has taken back control of the island.
He hopes the summit goes well: “We all [have to] live [together] on earth.”
Asked about how Trump policies are affecting their community, most of the people interviewed declined to comment. Some recalled feeling anti-Asian sentiment in the immediate wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when reports of hate crimes targeting Asians spiked, according to FBI data.
And while the numbers have come down from their peak in 2023, the more than 300 reported attacks on Asians in the U.S. last year, according to FBI data, remains generally higher than pre-pandemic levels.
One man born in Malaysia said he sometimes feels disrespected as an Asian person living in the U.S.
But a woman born in China who now sells nuts at a snack stand said the standard of living in the U.S. is high, and the standard of living for people living in China is improving.
“I think the U.S-China relationship is also getting better,” she said.
