The two leaders get ready to lock horns on Iran, trade and AI
Updated ,first published
Beijing: US President Donald Trump landed in Beijing for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping; The Iran war, trade, Taiwan and artificial intelligence were the main topics of conversation at this important meeting.
Trump was greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and other dignitaries when he stepped off Air Force One and onto the red carpet at the city’s Capital International Airport on Wednesday evening for the two-day summit.
He was greeted by a military honor guard, a military band, and hundreds of young Chinese men waving U.S. and Chinese flags.
Trump’s state visit to China – the first by a US president in almost a decade – comes with the burdens of the Iran war, which has triggered a global energy crisis and brought new tensions to the summit over its close diplomatic ties with Tehran, the biggest buyer of Beijing’s oil.
Both Trump and Xi will seek to stabilize the fragile trade truce secured in South Korea in October, with formal talks set to begin Thursday morning in the Great Hall of the People.
Official proceedings include a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a banquet in the evening. Xi will host Trump for a new round of talks in Zhongnanhai, China’s leadership hub, on Friday morning before the US president’s departure.
President Donald Trump was greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng as he arrived aboard Air Force One at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing.
access pointMany analysts see the Middle East conflict shifting further in China’s favor since the two leaders last met on the sidelines of the APEC summit last year.
Trump, who left Washington for Beijing on Tuesday (US time) downplayed the possibility of the war affecting the summit talks.
“I don’t think we need help with Iran. We will win one way or another, peacefully or otherwise,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One.
Trump is expected to say China will “win” on trade by locking in American food and plane purchases, and that he will talk to Xi about trade “more than anything else.”
Other US officials, including US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who this month called on China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, have indicated that the Iran war will be a major agenda item.
The war launched by the United States and Israel in February has depleted US military stockpiles, worsened cost-of-living pressures on Americans ahead of crucial midterm elections in November, and eroded the United States’ standing on the international stage.
“The Chinese are acutely aware that this is a major concern for Americans and, as a result, a significant source of leverage for Beijing,” said Evan Medeiros, a fellow at the Asia Group and former China adviser to the Obama administration’s National Security Council.
“The question is: Is Trump ready to pay the price Beijing imposes on cooperation with China on the Iran issue?”
Xi is expected to use the talks to highlight China’s claims to Taiwan and try to persuade Trump to withdraw U.S. arms sales to the democratic island or harden the official U.S. stance on Taiwan independence from “does not support” to “opposes.”
Trump’s visit comes just days after Taiwan’s opposition-controlled parliament approved only two-thirds of a $40 billion special defense budget for the purchase of US weapons authorized by Washington last year.
Trump’s months-long delay in signing another $14 billion arms package triggered speculation among analysts that it could be used as a negotiating chip.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media and officials were pre-announcing the US president’s arrival with strong statements that Taiwan was the highest-risk “red line” in US-China relations.
“We firmly oppose the United States establishing any military ties with China’s Taiwan region and the United States selling weapons to China’s Taiwan region,” Zhang Han, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Trump is accompanied by America’s top executives, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, and chip maker Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, who joined the travel party at the last minute.
He is also accompanied by cabinet officials, including family members Eric and Lara Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. One notable name missing from the traveling party is First Lady Melania Trump, who did not accompany the US president.
The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a “Board of Trade” with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent a trade war that erupted last year after Trump increased tariffs; this is an action that China opposes through its control of rare earth minerals. This led to a one-year ceasefire last October.
Despite Trump’s apparent confidence, China appeared to be entering the meeting “from a much stronger place,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.
China wants to reduce technological restrictions on access to computer chips and find ways to lower tariffs, among other goals.
“But even if they don’t understand much about these issues, unless there is an explosion at the meeting and President Trump goes and escalates tensions again, China emerges fundamentally stronger,” Kennedy said.
with AP
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Lisa Visentin is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Beijing. He was previously a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
