Beijing: US President Donald Trump will pay an official visit to China from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced Monday.
This will be the first visit to China by a US president in almost nine years. Trump himself was the last US president to visit China in 2017, during his first term.
The visit comes amid a prolonged war in West Asia involving the US-Israel and Iran, a crisis over the blockade of Strait of Hormuz causing global energy crisis, and increasing tensions between the US and China over a host of issues, including Taiwan.
Sunday, US principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump would arrive in Beijing Wednesday evening for what she described as a visit of symbolic significance.
According to Kelly, the US leader will attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping Thursday, followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The two leaders will meet again Friday for a bilateral tea and working lunch, she said, adding that the US planned to host the Chinese leader for a reciprocal visit later this year.
Both sides announced on Sunday that Vice-Premier He Lifeng will travel to South Korea for trade talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent May 12 and 13 in the final round of negotiations before Trump’s visit.
Trump’s visit is taking place amid expectations of a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies following steep tariffs imposed by the US president.
The talks would be guided by the important consensus reached between the two heads of state at their meeting in South Korea’s Busan last year, and in previous phone calls to address economic and trade issues of mutual concern, a Chinese commerce ministry statement said.
Ahead of Trump’s visit, China has been flagging Taiwan as its core concern.
Last week, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during their telephone talks, that the US should make the right choice about the self-ruled Taiwan.
China claims Taiwan as part of its own and has been ramping up military pressure on the island with periodic military drills around the island.
“The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests and the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian at a media briefing Thursday.
The US officially recognises Beijing as the sole legal government of China but opposes any unilateral change to the status quo, and maintains informal ties and defence support for Taiwan.
The Iran war, besides a number of economic issues including tariffs, AI chip regulation and critical minerals, is expected to figure prominently in the Trump-Xi meeting.
China is a key buyer of Iranian oil and has opposed the US blockade of Iranian ports, which affected its energy supplies.
It seems that Trump is much more keen to have this meeting rather than Xi, Bert Hoffman, former World Bank country director for China, said.
“And that’s in part because he is uncomfortable in his position, not just because of the Iran war, but also because his tariff policies are basically being thrown out by the court”, he said.
In a major ruling in February, the US Supreme Court struck down steep tariffs imposed by Trump, holding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorise the president to unilaterally impose such duties.
On the contrary, Hoffman said, Xi seems to be relatively comfortable as Chinese exports are doing well despite tariff issues with the US. “China’s exports are still doing very well. Imports and domestic demand are not doing so well, and that is of concern”, Hoffman told BBC.
He also said China wants to see the Iran war ended because many of its partners in the region, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. “So they don’t like to see wars, they like to have stability”, he said.
