On Friday, May 15, on the final day of his state visit to China, US president Donald Trump was given a rare tour of the Zhongnanhai walled compound in Beijing by Xi Jinping. Once a residence for Chinese emperors, it now houses the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the equivalent of China’s cabinet. But how rare? As Trump admired the centuries-old trees and roses, the US president asked his Chinese counterpart via an interpreter whether any other world leaders had been given such a tour. "Very rarely," President Xi said, speaking through an interpreter, in a translation provided by the Reuters news agency. "At first, we usually didn’t hold diplomatic events here. Even after we started having some, it’s still extremely rare.” Then he added, “For example, Putin has been here." Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the compound last year, as did Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus. Meanwhile, Trump’s predecessors Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon have all been within Zhongnanhai. The incident highlights the tensions underlying Trump’s now-concluded visit. While Trump painted his trip as an “incredible visit,” and Xi hailed a “new positioning” of relations, concrete details on policy or trade deals are scarce. Major issues still loom large around the US-Israeli war with Iran—China is the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil and Iran’s biggest trade partner—and Taiwan. Trump has said multiple deals have been struck including China buying US oil and 200 Boeing jets, but the latter deal has not been confirmed by China. Meanwhile the future of Nvidia’s H200 chips in China is just as murky, with no update provided on whether future sales will be permitted or, as is the current situation, China will continue to favor homegrown tech instead