Trump Meets Xi Jinping in Beijing Next Week for Trade, Tehran, and Taiwan Talks

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet in Beijing next week for a highly anticipated summit, described as the first of four potential meetings over the next year.

The Council on Foreign Relations says the summit will be in Beijing and frames the U.S. approach as “a decent peace,” while noting that it is unlikely to alter the character and course of the U.S.-China relationship long-term.

BBC

The Guardian adds that Trump will arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a summit with Xi Jinping, and it says the trip will mark the first time a US president has visited China in nearly a decade.

The Guardian also points to the “48-hour summit” and quotes Zhao Minghao, a professor at Fudan University, saying there was a “very prominent mutual distrust” between the two countries.

The Guardian further says the biggest items on the agenda will be trade, Tehran and Taiwan, while the Council on Foreign Relations describes the discussion as likely to include commercial deals such as commitments for U.S. commodities including soybeans and other agricultural products.

The Council on Foreign Relations says the Chinese side is expected to announce or reaffirm buying commitments for U.S. commodities, particularly soybeans and other agricultural products, and it also mentions a rumored large-scale purchase of Boeing passenger aircraft.

The Guardian reports that the optics of the summit will be heavily scrutinised and quotes Suzanne Maloney, vice-president and director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, saying the timing “absolutely changes the sense of our ascendance at this point in time and what it means for the relationship.”

Council on Foreign Relations

The Guardian also says the road to the Xi-Trump summit was set in Busan last October, when the US and China agreed a temporary truce in the trade war, and it adds that tariffs on China reached as high as 145% at one point.

The South China Morning Post quotes Brett Bruen, former White House global engagement director, saying “weakness on the domestic front puts a president in a precarious position on the global stage,” and it adds that China is trying to position itself as the more reasonable actor among global superpowers.

The Financial Times headline states “China’s exports jump 14% ahead of Xi Jinping-Donald Trump summit,” while Free Malaysia Today reports that exports were up 14.1% in April compared to the same month last year, citing the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The Council on Foreign Relations warns that the summit is about managing for stability, not solving outstanding concerns, and it lists issues including China’s mercantilist economic model and its designs on absorbing Taiwan.

It also says the most substantive policy outcome to emerge from the summit could be a move toward a “Board of Trade,” first floated by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer after talks with Chinese officials in Paris this March, with a strategy of managed trade and a forum for resolving disputes before they escalate.

The Guardian says the frictions, heightened by the war in the Middle East, will not be far from the surface, and it quotes Zhao Minghao again about disagreements on economic and trade issues, military-to-military relations, and Taiwan-related issues.

Free Malaysia Today reports that the war with Iran, launched by the US and Israel in late February, has produced new risks for China’s economy, while also saying China’s trade has so far appeared to be weathering the disruptions.

El País adds that next week, May 14 and 15, a summit between the two leaders in Beijing is planned, and it quotes Miguel Otero, senior researcher at the Real Instituto Elcano, saying “It is clear that China is winning this competition for multiple reasons.”