(AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Thursday told China’s Xi Jinping their countries would have “a fantastic future together,” as they began a superpower summit in Beijing on thorny issues including Iran, trade, and Taiwan. Heaping praise on his host, Trump told Xi it was “an honour to be your friend,” as the Chinese leader, in less effusive tones, said the two sides “should be partners and not rivals.”
Xi had greeted Trump with a red carpet welcome at the opulent Great Hall of the People, with military band fanfare, a gun salute, and a host of schoolchildren jumping and chanting “welcome!” The trip to Beijing is the first by a US president in nearly a decade, with the grand reception belying a host of unresolved trade and geopolitical tensions between the two countries. Xi questioned if China and the US could build cooperation rather than head for confrontation, as he underlined that “a stable China-US relationship is a boon for the world.”
“Cooperation benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both,” Xi said. There has been plenty of the latter since Trump’s last visit in 2017, with the two countries having spent much of 2025 embroiled in a dizzying trade war and at odds on many major global issues. A new addition to that list, the Iran war, threatens to weaken Trump’s position in the talks, having already forced him to postpone his trip from March. The US president said he expected a “long talk” with Xi about Iran, which sells most of its US-sanctioned oil to China, but insisted that “I don’t think we need any help with Iran” from Beijing.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, known throughout his career as a fierce opponent of Beijing, struck a somewhat different tone. “We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they are doing now, and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf,” Rubio told broadcaster Fox News in an interview aired Wednesday.
– Trade and tariffs –
Top of Trump’s wish list for the summit will be business deals on agriculture, aircraft, and other topics. Elite businessmen in the US leader’s delegation, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk, were on the stairs of the Great Hall of the People on Thursday for the welcome ceremony. Musk told reporters afterwards the meeting had been “wonderful,” while Huang said the two presidents “were incredible.”
Aboard Air Force One en route to Beijing, Trump vowed on social media to push Xi to “open up” China to US firms “so that these brilliant people can work their magic.” The long-simmering trade war between the two countries will also be top of the agenda, after Trump’s sweeping tariffs last year triggered tit-for-tat levies that exceeded 100 percent. Trump and Xi are set to discuss extending a one-year tariff truce, which the two leaders reached during their last meeting in South Korea in October, although a deal is far from certain.
On Taiwan, another issue that has bedevilled ties, Trump said Monday he would speak to Xi about US arms sales to the self-governing democracy claimed by China. That would be a departure from historic US insistence that it will not consult Beijing on its support for the island, and one which will be closely watched by Taipei and US allies in the region. China’s controls on rare earth exports and AI rivalry are among other topics expected to be taken up by the two heads of state.
Trump will be treated to a state banquet in the evening with Xi and will also visit the historic Temple of Heaven, a World Heritage site where China’s emperors once prayed for good harvest. Both sides will be looking to come out of the summit with whatever wins they can, while also stabilising an often tense bilateral relationship that has global implications. Trump will also be hoping to leave with a firm date for a reciprocal visit by Xi to the United States later in 2026, to prove his rapport with his Chinese counterpart.
– Danny Kemp
© 2024 AFP
