Trump stays in Beijing to talk about trade, Iran and Taiwan with Xi – National
US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for his much-anticipated talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the Iran war, trade and US arms sales to Taiwan.
The meat of the summit won’t come until Thursday, when the leaders will hold bilateral talks and an official banquet. But the Chinese gave Trump a lavish reception, rolling out a red carpet after Air Force One landed in the Chinese capital.
The president was to be greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng; Xie Feng, Chinese ambassador to Washington; Ma Zhaoxu, vice minister of foreign affairs; and the US envoy to Beijing, David Perdue, according to the White House. The welcome ceremony includes about 300 Chinese youths, a military guard and a military group.
“We are two great powers,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday for a long trip to Beijing. “We are the strongest nation in the world militarily. China is considered second.”
Although Trump likes to project a sense of power, the visit comes at a critical time in his presidency as his popularity at home has been depressed by the US and Israel’s war with Iran and rising inflation as a result of that conflict. The Republican president wants to win by signing deals with China to buy American soybeans, beef and airplanes, saying he will be talking to Xi about trade “more than anything else.”
The Trump administration hopes to begin a process to establish a Trade Board with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent a trade war that erupted last year after Trump’s tariff hikes, a move China has opposed over its control of rare minerals. That led to a one-year deal last October.
But Trump visited Beijing when Iran continued to dominate his domestic agenda. The war has resulted in the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the spread of oil and natural gas vessels and has caused energy prices to rise to levels that could harm the world’s economic growth. The US president announced that Xi does not need to help resolve the conflict, although Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.
“There are many things we have to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because Iran is very controlled,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
Taiwan is high on the agenda
The situation in Taiwan will also be a big topic as China is not happy with US plans to sell arms to the self-governing island which the Chinese government claims is part of its territory.
Trump told reporters on Monday that he would negotiate with Xi on an $11 billion arms package to Taiwan that the US administration approved in December but has yet to implement. The arms package is the largest ever authorized in Taiwan.
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But the U.S. leader has shown ambivalence toward Taiwan, a move that raises questions about whether Trump could be open to supporting the island’s democracy.
At the same time, Taiwan – as the world’s leading chipmaker – has become crucial to the development of AI, with the US importing more goods so far this year from Taiwan than from China. Trump wants to use Biden’s term plans and his own deals to bring more action to America.
The Chinese Communist Party’s news outlet, the People’s Daily, published a strongly-worded editorial before Trump’s arrival stressing that Taiwan is “the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-US relations” and is a “big danger zone” between the two nations.
Relations with Xi on a firm footing: Trump
Trump was already touting the trip as a success before he left the grounds of the White House. He openly weighed in on Xi’s planned visit to the US later this year, lamenting that the White House Ballroom under construction would not be completed in time for a proper coronation of the Chinese leader.
“We will have a good relationship for many decades to come,” Trump said of the US and China.
Trump boarded Air Force One for a large meeting with aides, family members and business world stars, including Nvidia and Tesla’s Jensen Huang and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. On his way to Beijing, he wrote on social media that his “first request” to Xi during the visit would be to ask the Chinese leader to strengthen the presence of American companies in China.
“I will ask President Xi, a very different Leader, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level!” wrote Trump, who is expected to receive an official greeting when he arrives in the Chinese capital on Wednesday evening.
Despite Trump’s outward confidence, China appears to be entering the meeting from “a very strong position,” said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser on China business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
China would like to reduce technical restrictions on access to chip chips and find ways to reduce prices, among other goals.
“But even if they don’t get much out of any of those things, as long as there’s no blowout in the meeting and President Trump doesn’t look to escalate again, China is coming out strong,” Kennedy said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met on Wednesday to discuss economic and trade issues at Incheon International Airport, west of the South Korean capital Seoul, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency.
Trump wants a 3-way nuclear deal
Trump also intends to raise the idea of the US, China and Russia signing an agreement that would limit the nuclear weapons each country maintains on its territory, according to a senior Trump administration official who told reporters before the trip. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
China has previously been cool about entering into such an agreement. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 active nuclear warheads and is far from equal to the US and Russia, each estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.
The last nuclear weapons agreement, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two major atomic weapons sites for the first time in more than a century. As the deal was about to expire, Trump rejected Russia’s invitation to extend the bilateral agreement for another year and called for a “new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.
The Pentagon estimates that China has more than 600 operational nuclear weapons and will have more than 1,000 by 2030.
