US president lands in Beijing ahead of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping

The culmination of the summit doesn’t begin until Thursday, when the leaders will hold bilateral talks, visit the Temple of Heaven, where Chinese emperors once prayed for bumper harvests, and take part in a formal banquet.

But the Chinese welcomed Trump with pomp and ceremony on Wednesday evening, literally rolling out the red carpet for him after Air Force One landed in the Chinese capital.

The president was greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng; Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to Washington; Ma Zhaoxu, Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs; as well as the US envoy to Beijing, David Perdue.

The welcome ceremony included a military honor guard, a military band and about 300 Chinese youth waving Chinese and American flags and chanting, “Welcome, welcome! Warm welcome!” as Trump made his way to his waiting limousine. The youth greeters were decked out in white and Robin’s Egg blue outfits that matched the paint job of the iconic presidential plane.

“We are the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday as he left the White House for the long flight to Beijing.

“We are the strongest nation on earth militarily. China is considered second.”

Although Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the visit comes at a delicate time for his presidency, as his popularity at home is under pressure from the US and Israel’s war with Iran and rising inflation as a result of that conflict.

The Republican president is seeking gains by striking deals with China to buy more U.S. soybeans, beef and planes, and says he will talk to Xi about trade “more than anything.”

The Trump administration hopes to start the process of establishing a trade council with China to address differences between the countries. The administration could help avert the trade war that emerged last year after Trump’s tariff hikes, a move that China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. This led to a one-year ceasefire last October.

But Trump visits Beijing as 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 raising energy prices to levels that could sabotage global economic growth. The US president stated that Xi did not need to help resolve the conflict, even though Iranian 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, because we have Iran largely under control,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

Taiwan high on the agenda

The status of Taiwan will also be a key issue as China expresses dissatisfaction 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 on Monday that he would talk to Xi about an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, which the US government approved in December but has not yet begun to implement. The arms package is the largest ever approved for Taiwan.

But the U.S. leader has shown greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that raises questions about whether Trump might be open to rolling back support for the island’s democracy.

At the same time, Taiwan – as the world’s largest chipmaker – has become vital to AI development, with the US importing more goods from Taiwan than from China so far this year. Trump has tried to use Biden-era programs and his own deals to bring more chip manufacturing to America.

The Chinese Communist Party’s news outlet People’s Daily published a strongly worded editorial prior to Trump’s arrival underscoring that Taiwan is “the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-US relations” and “the biggest risk point” between the two countries.

Trump says the relationship with Xi is on solid footing

Trump portrayed the trip as a success before he left the White House grounds. He openly mused about Xi’s planned return visit to the US later this year, lamenting that the under-construction White House ballroom would not be ready in time to properly welcome the Chinese leader.

“We will have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,” Trump said of the US and China.

Trump boarded Air Force One for the big meeting with a group of aides, family members and business titans, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.

While en route to Beijing, he posted on social media that his “first request” to Xi during the visit would be to ask the Chinese leader to strengthen the presence of American companies in China.

“I will ask President Xi, a leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic and take the People’s Republic to an even higher level!” wrote Trump, who is expected to receive a formal ceremonial greeting upon his arrival in the Chinese capital on Wednesday evening.

Despite Trump’s outward confidence, China appears to be coming into the meeting from “a much stronger place,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on Chinese affairs and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Among other things, China wants to reduce technical restrictions on access to computer chips and find ways to lower tariffs.

“But even if they don’t get a lot of these things, as long as there’s no explosion at the meeting and President Trump doesn’t leave and look for another escalation, China will actually come out stronger,” Kennedy said.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met on Wednesday to discuss economic and trade issues at Incheon International Airport, just west of the South Korean capital Seoul, China’s state news agency Xinhua said.

Trump wants a three-way nuclear weapons deal

Trump also plans to float the idea that the U.S., China and Russia would sign a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each country has in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under basic White House rules.

China was previously reluctant to conclude such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal includes more than 600 operational nuclear warheads, according to Pentagon estimates, and is far from equivalent to those of the US and Russia, each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads.

The last nuclear weapons treaty, known as the New START Treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, lifting all restrictions on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century. As the treaty expired, Trump rejected a call from Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernized” deal that would include China.

The Pentagon estimates that China has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and will have more than 1,000 by 2030.

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