President Donald Trump is set to embark on his multiday trip to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday afternoon — roughly six weeks after the summit in Beijing was originally planned and then delayed amid the United States’ war with Iran.
The U.S. and Israel launched large-scale strikes Feb. 28 on Iran, which then attacked its neighbors in the Gulf region before a fragile ceasefire was announced last month.
The conflict in the Middle East is slated to be a point of discussion as Iran’s effective stranglehold of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil was transported in peacetime, has sent global fuel prices soaring.
In the U.S., the 10-week war pushed gasoline prices up 5.4% in April from a month earlier — and more than 28% from a year ago — the Labor Department reported Tuesday.
“There are a lot of ways the Chinese could help if they want to help, and we’re just going to have to see whether or not Xi Jinping decides that it’s in his interest to assist,” said Dennis Wilder, a professor at Georgetown University and a former official on the White House’s National Security Council under former President George W. Bush.
Trump has been trying to convince Beijing to use its influence to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“There’s been no ships coming in, no nasty ships coming in that we end up in skirmishes with,” Trump said during an unrelated White House event Monday.
“He’d like to see it get done,” the U.S. president added of the Chinese leader.
China is the world’s biggest purchaser of Iranian oil, with the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission estimating that Chinese purchases account for about 90% of Iran’s exported oil.
The U.S. has been ramping up pressure — particularly on independent Chinese “teapot” refineries — in an effort to reduce Iran’s revenue. Earlier this year, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control took actions against Chinese oil refineries and shippers, accusing them of buying oil from Tehran.
On Friday, the State Department also said it was sanctioning several China-based firms for providing sensitive satellite imagery that enables Iranian military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East. China called the sanctions “illegal unilateral pressure” and enacted a blocking statute, which would prohibit any Chinese entity from recognizing or complying with the sanctions, The Associated Press reported.
Timeline of the trip
Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening.
More than a dozen tech and business executives –– including Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as Tesla CEO and former U.S. DOGE Service head Elon Musk –– are slated to join Trump on the visit to Beijing.
The U.S. president will participate in a welcome ceremony Thursday morning and bilateral meetings with Xi on Thursday and Friday. Several other events in China are planned before Trump departs for the U.S. on Friday.
In a Truth Social post on Monday evening, Trump wrote that he was very much looking forward to his trip and meeting with Xi, adding, “Great things will happen for both Countries!”
Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan are subsequently expected to travel to Washington for a reciprocal visit later this year.
Leaders expected to discuss trade
This week’s summit between Trump and Xi follows a dialing down of trade tensions between the two nations that had seen tariffs peaking around 145% on Chinese goods and 125% on U.S. products in 2025.
“Basically you had two heavyweights in the ring boxing with each other,” Wilder said. “They boxed all year long, and at the end of the year, they both came to realize that neither had a knockout punch, that it was time to try and find a different way.
“This visit is really about stabilizing the relationship, moving away from the tit for tat of tariffs and coming up with the new modus vivendi between Washington and Beijing,” he continued.
Last year, Trump had set import taxes on Chinese items in the double digits, prompting Beijing to announce it was tightening its rare-earth export controls.
But after meeting with Xi in October in South Korea, the U.S. president said he was reducing the tariffs on China and that Beijing would resume the export of rare-earth elements and start buying American soybeans.
“I guess on the scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump said at the time.
While Trump’s sweeping tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were struck down by the Supreme Court in February, his administration has imposed a global 10% import tax using another statute and has launched investigations into China through Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a precursor step to additional tariffs.
In April, Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on China after reports that Beijing was preparing to deliver weapons to Iran, but he later backed off, saying in an interview last month that Xi responded he was “not doing that.”
Ahead of Trump’s upcoming trip, senior U.S. officials teased the potential creation of a Board of Trade to manage trade between the two countries of non-sensitive goods, as well as a Board of Investment as a forum for discussion.
“I think President Trump will push China to purchase certain U.S. commodities, whether those be agricultural purposes, soybeans, Boeing aircraft or others,” said Jack Burnham, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ China Program. “There may be the announcement of some mechanisms around economic cooperation.”
Trump says weapons sales to Taiwan on agenda
Trump also said Monday that he planned to discuss Washington’s arms sales to the self-governed Taiwan, which China considers to be part of its territory.
“It always comes up,” Trump said, then pivoting to the war in Ukraine, claiming that Russia would not have invaded its neighbor had Trump been president. “Taiwan, I equate it a little bit to that. If you have the right president, I don’t think it will happen.”
The U.S. announced a massive package of weapons sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion late last year –– a move that China criticized. That was followed by a trade deal between the U.S. and Taiwan, with Taipei agreeing to remove or reduce the vast majority of its tariffs.
Ahead of Trump’s departure, a senior U.S. official said there was an “ongoing conversation” between Trump and Xi about Taiwan.
“Certainly the last couple of times they’ve interacted has been a point of discussion,” the official said Sunday. “There’s been no change of U.S. policy coming out of those. We don’t expect to see any changes in U.S. policy going forward.”