BEIJING — President Trump's first visit to China in nine years is a high-risk trip that reflects the rivalry and mutual dependence of two superpowers hoping to avoid a collision course, even if Trump presents it more as a meeting between close friends and business partners.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Washington on Tuesday, Trump downplayed tensions between the two countries, including on trade, calling Chinese President Xi Jinping “a wonderful guy” and friend and saying the working relationship between the two countries is “very good.”
Trump acknowledged China's power, saying that the Asian nation and the United States are clearly the world's two superpowers, and that the focus of the meeting “more than anything else will be trade.”
“We're going to have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,” Trump said. “My relationship with President Xi is fantastic. We've always gotten along well, we're doing very well with China and working with China has been very good, so we're looking forward to it.”
Trump also downplayed the meeting for the war in Iran. He said Xi could help the United States reach a deal to end the war, but he doesn't need it “because we have Iran very much under control.”
The state visit marks the first by a US president to China since Trump's trip here in 2017, just months into his first term. President Biden never arrived, becoming the first not to do so since diplomatic relations were normalized, an absence that underscored the simmering mistrust and animosity between Washington and Beijing that has only worsened since then.
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In the capital, security forces cordoned off an area around the Temple of Heaven about the size of 400 football fields ahead of the US president's visit, anticipating a stop at the monument to imperial China and Confucian thought.
On his previous trip, Trump received the rare honor of a state banquet inside the Forbidden City. This time he is expected to dine in the Great Hall of the People, an imposing structure facing Tiananmen Square that hosts high-level meetings of the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump's positive turn on Tuesday aside, his agenda for meetings beginning Thursday with Xi highlights the wide range of American interests that depend on and often clash with Beijing's policies.
After launching a trade war against China at the start of his second term, Trump now comes hat in hand calling for an extension of a tariff truce, fearful that Xi will follow through on his threats to halt the export of rare earth minerals to the United States that are vital to the manufacturing of American goods, including everyday consumer equipment and advanced defense technologies.
His visit comes as the ceasefire in the war with Iran, negotiated with the help of Beijing, is on “massive life support,” according to the president. Trump is expected to ask Xi for help in getting Tehran to restore free and open passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
And in a dramatic shift, the Trump administration has begun talks with the Chinese about establishing a communications channel on artificial intelligence, alarmed that recent technological leaps could pose global risks.
All of these requests are expected to have a cost.
President Trump leaves the White House on May 12, 2026 for his second state visit to China.
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In remarks before the trip, Trump said he hoped U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, including one already approved by Congress, would become a key piece in the negotiations.
“I'm going to have that conversation with President Xi,” Trump said. “President Xi would like us not to, and I will have that discussion. That is one of the many things I will talk about.”
The idea that US support for Taiwan is a negotiable issue is sure to unsettle US allies across the region, from Japan to the Philippines, who rely on US security guarantees amid China's military aggression in the Indo-Pacific.
Despite geopolitical tensions, both sides are expected to announce trade and investment deals, underscoring how deeply intertwined the world's two largest economies remain.
China plans to make a major purchase of Boeing aircraft, and the president has brought 17 American corporate leaders with him on the trip to discuss additional opportunities, including Apple's Tim Cook, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Meta's Dina Powell McCormick and Tesla's Elon Musk.
The two leaders are expected to have other opportunities to speak in person over the next year, including possible meetings at the Group of 20 summit in Florida, the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, and a state visit to Washington that Trump has said he will host for Xi sometime in the coming months.
Trump said Tuesday that Xi's visit will be “toward the end of the year” and “exciting.” He also lamented that the ballroom he is building on the White House grounds (on the site of the historic East Wing he demolished) will not be ready in time.
Jennifer Hong, senior director of the Indo-Pacific Security Institute, said she worries the state visit will become part of a “tyranny of the calendar,” in which the Chinese agree to schedule more high-level meetings requested by Trump that postpone vital U.S. decision-making.
“I think this trip is necessary for the United States government; I think there are things that are on hold because they don't want to cause problems,” Hong said, highlighting the Trump administration's delay in arms sales to Taiwan, even though the packages have already received congressional approval.
“I'm just concerned that this is a series of promises, or perhaps some postponement for about a year,” he added, “as we continue to stonewall national security issues in the interest of more meetings.”
Trump on Tuesday repeatedly ruled out possible Chinese help in resolving the war in Iran, which has driven up prices domestically and around the world as oil shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz have been severely disrupted and U.S. efforts to fully reopen the canal have so far been unsuccessful.
“To be honest, I don't think we need any help with Iran,” Trump said. “They are militarily defeated.”
Trump also said that the financial pain that many Americans are feeling from the war, even at the gas pump, is simply not a factor – “not even a little bit,” he said – in his ongoing negotiations with Iran.
“The only thing that matters when I talk about Iran [is that] “They can't have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “I don't think about the financial situation of Americans. I don't think about anyone.”
