{"id":426377,"date":"2026-05-13T23:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426377\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:13:11","slug":"trump-due-to-meet-xi-as-war-inflation-weigh-on-his-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426377\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump due to meet Xi as war, inflation weigh on his presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday (local time) for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping<\/a> at a restless moment for a world worried about war,<\/a> trade and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re the two superpowers,\u201d Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday. \u201cWe’re the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China\u2019s considered second.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump likes to project a sense of strength, the visit occurs at a delicate moment for his presidency as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the US and Israel’s war with Iran and rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict. The president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American food and aircraft, saying he’ll be talking with Xi about trade \u201cmore than anything else”. <\/p>\n

Unpacking the fault lines shaping Trump\u2019s crucial talks with China\u2019s president – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting with Xi Jinping likely to result in deals for China to buy more US food and aircraft. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a \u201cBoard of Trade\u201d with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent the trade war ignited last year after Trump’s tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October.<\/p>\n

But Trump comes to Beijing at a time when 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 causing energy prices to spike to levels that could sabotage global economic growth. The US president declared that Xi didn\u2019t need to assist in resolving the conflict, even though Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn\u2019t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Taiwan and trade are high on the agenda<\/p>\n

The status of Taiwan also appears to be a major topic as China is displeased with US plans to sell weapons to the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims as part of its own territory.<\/p>\n

Trump told reporters Monday that he would be discussing with Xi an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that the US administration authorised in December but has not yet begun fulfilling.<\/p>\n

The US leader has demonstrated greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that\u2019s raising questions about whether Trump could be open to dialing back support for the island democracy.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Taiwan \u2014 as the world’s leading chipmaker \u2014 has become essential for the development of AI, with the US importing more goods so far this year from Taiwan than China. Trump has sought to use Biden-era programmes and his own deals to bring more chipmaking to America.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In this Nov. 9, 2017, file photo, US President Donald Trump, right, chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Trump says relationship with Xi is on solid footing<\/p>\n

But Trump was already portraying the trip as a success before he left White House grounds. He openly mused about Xi’s planned reciprocal visit to the US, lamenting that the ballroom under construction would not be completed in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a great relationship for many, many decades to come,\u201d Trump said of the US and China. \u201cAs you know, President Xi will be coming here toward the end of the year. So that would be exciting. I only wish we had the ballroom finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said he had spoken with the Chinese leader and the meeting would be \u201cpositive” as he embarked on Air Force One with a coterie of aides, family members and business world titans, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

Trump, as he flew to Beijing, posted on social media that his “first request” to Xi during the visit will be to ask the Chinese leader to bolster the presence of US firms in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to \u2018open up\u2019 China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People\u2019s Republic to an even higher level!\u201d wrote Trump, who is expected to receive a formal ceremonial greeting when he arrives in the Chinese capital on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s outward confidence, China appears to be entering the meeting from \u201ca much stronger place,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.<\/p>\n

China would like to reduce tech restrictions on accessing computer chips and find ways to reduce tariffs, among other goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even if they don\u2019t get much on any of those things, as long as there\u2019s not a blow-up in the meeting and President Trump doesn\u2019t go away and look to re-escalate, China basically comes out stronger,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

Trump wants a three-way nuclear arms deal<\/p>\n

Trump also intends to raise the idea of the US, China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.<\/p>\n

China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the US and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5000 nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n

The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for \u201ca new, improved, and modernised\u201d deal that includes China.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon estimated China had more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and would have over a thousand by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday (local time) for his highly anticipated summit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2300,65,42,43,64,40,38,41,39,66],"class_list":["post-426377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}