Trump-Xi Summit: US President Jets To China With A Gaggle of CEOs | WION Fineprint

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Now, the world's attention is on China at the moment as Donald Trump has arrived in Beijing for a high-stakes meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

[00:00:09]Now, this visit is the first by an American president in the last 9 years.

[00:00:13]The American president was greeted on the tarmac [music] by China's Vice President Han Zheng, the US Ambassador David Perdue, the Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, and the Chinese Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu.

[00:00:37]>> [music] >> The 300 Chinese youth and also a military band and honor guard, the bronze band and flag wavers who performed as he descended on the steps of Air Force One.

[00:01:01]Now, the American president is accompanied by a top diplomatic delegation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hoekstra, [music] his special adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, and the Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are all part of Trump's team.

[00:01:20]Now, Trump is also being accompanied by a group of top executives from some of America's most valuable companies, including the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

[00:01:34]The top executives will focus on securing commercial wins and also ease tensions that have strained trade, technology, and global supply chains.

[00:01:44]Now, Trump will begin his 2 days of high-stakes talks with Xi Jinping on Thursday morning. Trump will be greeted by Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

[00:01:53]And then, the two leaders will participate in in which will be open to the press.

[00:01:57]And later on, Trump and Xi and the US delegation will participate in a state banquet.

[00:02:06]The many in the diplomatic circles are comparing Trump's visit with Richard Nixon's historic 1972 meeting with Mao Zedong.

[00:02:13]Trump's visit follows months of strain between Washington and Beijing on key issues including tariffs, the war that the Americans and the Israelis started on Iran, and also the issue of Taiwan.

[00:02:25]The New New Delhi is of course keeping a close eye on the developments in China.

[00:02:28]India has a good working equation with both nations.

[00:02:32]The US has been deepening its strategic ties with India despite the tariff hiccups with China, and India is cautiously coming together after their ties hit rock bottom during the Galwan clashes.

[00:02:43]Now China happens to be India's biggest trading partner.

[00:02:47]India with along with other global economies hope that Donald Trump is able to negotiate with Xi on the matter of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and also on the question of the Iran war.

[00:02:58]The US is pushing for China to try and use its leverage to get Iran to end the blockade of Hormuz, and such a move of course will benefit New Delhi. India, which happens to be a major energy consumer, relies on vital maritime artery.

[00:03:12]Hormuz handles roughly about 40% of India's crude oil and over half of its LNG imports.

[00:03:20]Now India is aligned with the United States in the Quad grouping along with Japan and Australia. The four-nation group is seen by Beijing as an anti-China block.

[00:03:29]Though officially the Quad is focused on a group for free and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

[00:03:38]All right. Now joining us on the broadcast, we've got Professor Swaran Singh. He's a professor of international relations at JNU. Professor Singh, thank you very much indeed for joining us here on VOA. Now this is a high-stakes meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Now, the United States sees China as its great rival, so to speak, a nation that could eclipse the United States in terms of both its economy and also its military might. So, Donald Trump in the past has blown hot and cold vis-a-vis China. In your assessment, what do you think is the key issue that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would of course discuss?

[00:04:18]I think what is grabbing big headlines for this summit meeting is how President Trump can take a certain amount of help from President Xi Jinping in having an early resolution of opening Strait of Hormuz which serves interests of both these leaders and both these would be happy to see Strait of Hormuz opened up.

[00:04:44]Beyond that, of course, there'll be issues of bilateral trade which is an ongoing area of tension, of tariffs, of technology. And I think to the minimum they will be definitely able to continue with the truce that they had created in Busan meeting last October where Chinese had decided to lower down restrictions on exports of rare earth materials and also agreed to buy much more of soybean and beef from United States.

[00:05:16]Trump comes to this summit meeting primarily driven by other than Iran war, his domestic concerns, his popularity rating is going down, midterm elections coming in front of him.

[00:05:29]On the other side, President Xi Jinping is looking forward to taking some concessions from President Trump in terms of US support to Taiwan, particularly arms supplies to Taiwan.

[00:05:40]And of course, the ongoing issues of artificial intelligence, semiconductors, regional security and so on would also be important. But you noticed that this time the welcome is very different. You mentioned Vice President Han Zheng receiving President Trump at airport. He is much senior, much closer to President Xi Jinping compared to 2017 when a state counselor Yang Jiechi had to come to receive him. So in the very opening they're showcasing that they respect President Trump.

[00:06:11]Interesting. Now Donald Trump has said that he does not need China's [music] help in resolving the issue or the war that he has with Iran. In your assessment, what incentive do you think China has to help Donald Trump out of the crisis that's been created at the Strait of Hormuz by the American war on Iran? Do you think China would like to see this war go on for some time longer because if the United States remains bogged down in the Strait of Hormuz, that obviously is advantage China and Russia.

[00:06:46]Definitely since China sees the United States as its primary competitor, so also United States sees China as a systemic challenge. So from that perspective, Beijing may be happy to see United States entangled in that kind of dissipating its energies in that Iran war.

[00:07:06]But equally important it is to notice that Chinese also need the Strait of Hormuz to be open because the bulk of China's energy, in fact 80% of Iran's oil exports go to China. China has about 300 billion dollars trade with Gulf countries annually. China has enormous investments in that region. So China would also be equally benefiting from an early end to this war and back to normalization in that region. Indeed China had also emerged as a peacemaker from 2023 when it had the created certain rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. So, Iran has suddenly developed much more in terms of outreach and engagement in the region. So, by opening Strait of Hormuz, China is also going to be equally benefiting from it. Of course, President Trump for a long time is looking for a exit strategy face-saving as soon as possible.

[00:08:06]Interesting. Thank you very much, Professor Swaran Singh, for joining us with that perspective. Thank you.

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