Trump Meets Xi Jinping for Two-Day Summit in Beijing
President Donald Trump lands in the Chinese capital Wednesday night accompanied by a delegation of 18 U.S. business leaders for talks focused on trade, Taiwan and Iran. The visit, his first to China in nearly nine years, follows last October's meeting that paused 2025 tariff exchanges. Trump will sign an executive order lowering tariffs on foreign beef imports on Monday.
The GuardianPresident Donald Trump is scheduled to land in Beijing tomorrow night for a two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping that will include bilateral meetings, a tour of the Temple of Heaven, a state dinner on Thursday night and tea between the two leaders on Friday.
Trump will be joined by Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Chuck Robbins of Cisco, Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, Dina Powell McCormick of Meta, Kelly Ortberg of Boeing, Brian Sikes of Cargill, Ryan McInerney of Visa, Jane Fraser of CitiGroup, Jacob Thaysen of Illumina, Jim Anderson of Coherent, Larry Culp of General Electric, Michael Miebach of Mastercard, Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and others.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, was not invited to join the trip.
The two leaders last met in October, when they paused a flurry of tit-for-tat trade tariffs that began in February 2025. Trump imposed 20 percent tariffs on China that month after accusing Beijing of allowing fentanyl to enter the United States. U.S. oil and agricultural machines. U.S. officials have said that Trump wants to finalize the details of a board of trade with China during the trip.
-Israeli war against Iran would be over. The summit comes one week after Beijing hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. China is a close ally of Iran and the world's biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
Trump said yesterday that Washington's longstanding support for Taiwan's defense would be on his agenda for the Beijing summit. Taiwan is a self-governing island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.
““President Xi would like us not to, and I’ll have that discussion. That’s one of the many things I’ll be talking about.””
“— President Donald Trump Trump's Middle East visit in May 2025 produced a flurry of tech deals. Whether the Beijing trip will foster similar technology agreements remains to be seen. China's laws require AI companies to submit their models to Beijing for review on both security and political sensitivity grounds. On Monday, Trump is scheduled to sign an executive order that will in effect lower tariffs on foreign beef imports. A White House official said he will sign two executive orders aimed at lowering beef prices. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office yesterday that he had dismissed Tehran's latest peace proposal as totally unacceptable. He described the ongoing fragile ceasefire between the parties as on life support.”
““I would call it the weakest, right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us – I didn’t even finish reading it. I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says: ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living.’””
“— President Donald Trump”
Key Facts
Story Timeline
7 events- May 12, 10:03 AM ET
3 new sources added: Politico, The Guardian, New York Post
3 sourcesPolitico · The Guardian · New York Post - 2026-05-13
Trump scheduled to land in Beijing for two-day summit with Xi
4 sourcesThe Guardian · MorningBrew · The New York Times · @spectatorindex - 2026-05-12
Trump states Taiwan defense support and Iran ceasefire status are on Beijing agenda
2 sourcesThe Guardian · Donald Trump - 2026-05-12
Trump to sign executive order lowering tariffs on foreign beef imports
3 sources@JavierBlas · New York Post · White House official - 2026-05-05
Beijing hosts Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi one week before Trump visit
1 sourceThe Guardian - 2025-10
Trump and Xi last met and paused 2025 tariff escalation
2 sourcesThe Guardian - 2025-02
Trump imposes 20% tariffs on China; Beijing retaliates on coal, LNG, oil and agricultural machines
2 sourcesThe Guardian
Potential Impact
- 01
Lowered tariffs on imported beef expected to reduce U.S. domestic meat prices
- 02
Discussion of U.S. arms sales and policy toward Taiwan with direct implications for cross-strait stability
- 03
Potential finalization of U.S.-China board of trade during meetings
- 04
Chinese request for U.S. pressure on Iran to reopen Strait of Hormuz likely to be traded against concessions on Taiwan
- 05
Possible technology-sector agreements similar to those signed during Trump's May 2025 Middle East trip
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