Watch Live: Trump meets Chinese leader Xi in Beijing today as trade, tariffs and Taiwan loom over visit
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in Beijing on Thursday local time, as the two countries aim to stabilize their trade relationship and deal with uncertainty over the United States’ war with Iran.
Mr. Trump and Xi shook hands outside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday morning, late Wednesday night ET. The two leaders stood together to watch the arrival ceremony that included a brass band, new soldiers and children cheering with small Chinese and American flags.
The first face-to-face meeting of American and Chinese leaders since Octoberand the first visit to China by an American president since Mr. Trump went to Beijing in 2017.
Mr. Trump spoke glowingly of Xi during the briefing, calling him a “wonderful man” and a “great gentleman,” and said he would give Xi a “big, fat hug.”
In an interview that aired Wednesday evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that China is “our biggest challenge, geopolitically” and “the most important relationship we have to manage,” calling China a “big, powerful country.”
More than a year ago, US-China relations were very good. President Trump’s hefty tariffs on China and other trading partners have ignited a trade war with Beijing, leading the two countries to briefly combine tariffs on each other’s goods to more than 100%. China and the US also split rare earth elements, semiconductors, student visasshipment of fentanyl precursor chemicals, Imported Chinese soybeans and other issues.
Tensions have eased since then, with both countries lowering tariffs and China agreeing to end restrictions on exports to the exotic world. It’s unclear whether the US and China are on track to strike a comprehensive trade deal, but experts believe neither side wants a renegotiation. trade war last yearand both sides said they want stability.
The Trump administration wants to protect US access to the exotic world and allow American companies to export food and other goods to the Chinese market – topics that may come up in this week’s Trump-Xi meetings. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has also floated the idea of a US-China “Board of Trade” to coordinate those agreements.
“We will be talking to President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say that more than anything else it will be trade,” said Mr. Trump told reporters before leaving for Beijing on Tuesday.
Several US officials have also been invited to China. Figures such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook were among those who attended Thursday’s reception at the Great Hall of the People, standing alongside Trump administration officials in the US delegation. China is an important market for many of their companies, including Nvidia wanting to sell more advanced chips to China.
The US-Iran war is also stalled over negotiations, although Mr. Trump said he does not expect it to come up as a trade deal. Mr. Trump wants a deal with Iran, but talks appear to have stalled as both countries seek control over the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Trump said this week that the original April deal that halted direct US-Iran hostilities is on “life support.”
Some experts oppose the US focus on the Middle East – including weapons used in Iran – it would make it very difficult to prepare to deal with China.
At the same time, China buys a lot of oil from the Middle East and is the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil, meaning that China is both sensitive to the war’s negative impact on global oil trade and key to supporting Iran’s economy.
Rubio said on Fox News that he expects Iran to come to this week’s talks with Chinese officials, and that “we have made it clear that any support for Iran would harm our relationship.” He pointed out that China is interested in resolving the impact of the Iran conflict on oil transportation, and “we hope to convince them to play an active role.”
Taiwan is another ongoing problem. The People’s Republic of China has long said it intends to reunite with Taiwan, and it is not backing down from using force to take over what it sees as a rebel province. The US has given billions of dollars in military support to Taiwan and has said it opposes any unilateral change to the status quo, but the US also has a long-standing policy of refusing to say whether it will come to the defense of Taiwan in a war with China.
Meanwhile, some in Taiwan – a democracy that produces most of the world’s most advanced semiconductors – are concerned that the US is supporting the island. may be discussed as mr. Trump wants deals with China, experts say.
