Trump Meets Xi in Beijing May 13-15 Amid U.S.-Iran War and Taiwan Dispute

China confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to China to meet Xi Jinping, with the visit scheduled for 13 to 15 May and described as the first trip by a U.S. president to China in nearly a decade.

The summit is set against a backdrop that includes the U.S. war against Iran and a fragile trade truce, with MercoPress saying the agenda also covers the dispute over Taiwan's sovereignty.

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The BBC frames the meeting as a key test for a “fragile trade truce between Washington and Beijing,” after April 2025 sweeping import taxes helped trigger a tit-for-tat trade war in which tariffs topped 100% between the two countries.

MercoPress adds that the summit was rescheduled in March after the outbreak of the war with Iran on 28 February, and it says China’s Foreign Ministry issued the confirmation ahead of Trump’s expected arrival at Beijing airport on Wednesday evening.

The BBC says Trump doubled down on tariff policies after returning to office in 2025, imposing 20% tariffs on China and setting a 34% levy on Chinese goods on “Liberation Day,” making the total tariffs among the highest of any country.

It also says Beijing retaliated with duties on U.S. agricultural goods, while Trump’s approach ran into China’s near-monopoly of the world’s supplies of rare earths, crucial for making everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

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On the Iran track, MercoPress reports that the summit will unfold as the U.S. war against Iran remains central, and it notes that Beijing has condemned the US and Israeli strikes and called for an end to military operations.

The same MercoPress article says in April U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated China had given high-level assurances it would not send weapons to Iran, particularly surface-to-air missiles, and it adds that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing last week and met with Wang Yi.

Ahead of the leaders’ meeting, MercoPress says the technical groundwork will be laid on 12 and 13 May in Seoul by Vice Premier He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with Washington pushing for a bilateral Board of Trade.

The BBC describes the meeting as occurring at a pivotal moment for ties between the world’s two largest economies, and it says the tariffs were paused after Trump and Xi’s last face-to-face meeting in South Korea in October.

CNBC says the agenda spans trade, technology, rare earth export controls, Taiwan, the Iran war, and artificial intelligence, and it quotes Chad Bown saying, “Virtually everyone has a stake in the outcome of this meeting.”

CNBC also warns that a contentious summit that deepens tensions could prolong economic and geopolitical volatility, and it quotes Eswar Prasad saying, “The entire world will be hoping that the two leaders can reach agreement on at least a subset of issues … and find ways to prevent any further escalation of tensions on the remaining ones.”