President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a restless moment for a world worried about war, trade and artificial intelligence.
“We're the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday. “We're the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”
While Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the visit occurs at a delicate moment for his presidency as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran and rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict.
The president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American food and aircraft, saying he'll be talking with Xi about trade “more than anything else.”
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 the trade war ignited last year after Trump's tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October.
But Trump comes to Beijing at a time when Iran continues to dominate his domestic agenda. The war has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, stranding oil and natural gas tankers and causing energy prices to spike to levels that could sabotage global economic growth.
The U.S. president declared that Xi didn’t need to assist in resolving the conflict, even though Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.
“We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control," Trump told reporters Tuesday.
Taiwan and trade are high on the agenda
The status of Taiwan also appears to be a major topic as China is displeased with U.S. plans to sell weapons to the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims as part of its own territory.
Trump told reporters Monday that he would be discussing with Xi an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that the U.S. administration authorized in December but has not yet begun fulfilling.
The U.S. leader has demonstrated greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that’s raising questions about whether Trump could be open to dialing back support for the island democracy.
At the same time, Taiwan — as the world's leading chipmaker — has become essential for the development of AI, with the U.S. importing more goods so far this year from Taiwan than China. Trump has sought to use Biden-era programs and his own deals to bring more chipmaking to America.
Trump says relationship with Xi is on solid footing
But Trump was already portraying the trip as a success before he left White House grounds. He openly mused about Xi's planned reciprocal visit to the U.S., lamenting that the ballroom under construction would not be completed in time.
“We’re going to have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,” Trump said of the U.S. and China. “As you know, President Xi will be coming here toward the end of the year. So that would be exciting. I only wish we had the ballroom finished.”
Trump said he had spoken with the Chinese leader and the meeting would be “positive" as he embarked on Air Force One with a coterie of aides, family members and business world titans, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk.
He will arrive in China on Wednesday evening and, after a ceremonial greeting, go to his hotel. He will attend a state banquet Thursday and have a working lunch with Xi on Friday before returning to the U.S.
Despite Trump’s outward confidence, China appears 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 Washington think tank.
China would like to reduce tech restrictions on accessing computer chips and find ways to reduce tariffs, among other goals.
“But even if they don’t get much on any of those things, as long as there’s not a blow-up in the meeting and President Trump doesn’t go away and look to re-escalate, China basically comes out stronger,” Kennedy said.
Trump wants a three-way nuclear arms deal
Trump also intends to raise the idea of the U.S., China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing's arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.
The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century
As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.
