Trump, Xi Set For High-Stakes Talks | Tehran & Taiwan On Agenda | WION Fineprint

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]The leaders of the world's two biggest economies, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xiinping are set to hold talks in Beijing on May 14th and 15th. The high stakes meeting will be held under the shadow of the US Iran war. Trump's visit to Beijing in the first by a US president in nearly 9 years. The trip was postponed earlier because of the war from early April. The US president's visit comes even as the progress on a deal with Thran appears to unravel. These are the images of US Air Force C17 Globe Master 3 landing at Beijing Capital International Airport.

[00:00:37]Now, according to the Chinese government, the aircraft are believed to be carrying equipment and vehicles in preparation for Trump's visit. The US president's priorities can be summed up as three T's. Trade, Thran, and Taiwan.

[00:00:53]On trade, Trump wants China to buy more US goods with aviation and aircraft purchases reportedly under discussion.

[00:01:00]On Iran, he is expected to press China to do more behind the scenes to influence Thran, particularly to help reopen the Strait of Homus.

[00:01:10]Taiwan is also likely to feature prominently along with other issues such as Hong Kong. China on the other hand is already setting the tone of the crucial summit. It is aggressively promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence. This time Trump will return to a Beijing that is a far more powerful confident seat of global power than a decade ago. Xiinping who now understands Trump's unpredictability and holds no illusions about making lasting deals with the American leader. Instead, she wants to project China as a more reliable and responsible counterweight to US volatility.

[00:01:50]The top level diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China US relations.

[00:01:58]China is willing to work with the United States in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit to expand cooperation, manage differences, and inject more stability and certainty into a volatile and intertwined world.

[00:02:15]From Beijing's perspective, she's objectives focus on three S's.

[00:02:20]Stability, status, and sense of Taiwan.

[00:02:25]China wants greater stability in the West Asia region as the conflict there directly affects its energy security.

[00:02:33]She is also aiming to reinforce China's status as a responsible global power, quietly working to ease tensions rather than inflame them. On Taiwan, Beijing is seeking reassurance from Washington, both through US statements and through restraint from allies. Despite assumptions in Washington, China's influence over Iran is often overstated.

[00:02:56]Experts believe Tan does not simply follow Beijing's instructions. China can encourage dialogue and make suggestions, but it is unlikely to act in ways that make it appear to be carrying out what Donald Trump wants it to do.

[00:03:11]I think he will want to have to look for um stability, see if he can um get the United States to think well how do you resolve the conflict in the Middle East in the Gulf and bring more stability to the region because it is going to affect it is affecting China's energy sourcing.

[00:03:34]I think Xiinping is also looking for a sense of status.

[00:03:43]>> Iranian foreign minister Basaraki met with his Chinese foreign minister Wang year Wang Yi in Beijing on last uh last Thursday. He emphasized Beijing support for diplomatic talks over the resumption of war. Experts caution against presuming the US China summit will deliver major wins for either side or breakthroughs on thorny issues. However, China has leverage with Iran but it is exercising it selectively.

[00:04:15]>> Pleasure to see you again.

[00:04:17]>> Joining us live now from New York is Miss Jennifer Zang. She is a member of International Press Association and the host of Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zang. Jennifer, thank you very much for your time and welcome to the broadcast.

[00:04:32]What are your predictions or expectations of this meeting between Trump and Xiinping?

[00:04:39]>> As far as I can see, I don't think significant result will come out of this summit. uh because in the US side I think of of course it has its agenda um and all the all the agendas on the table of course we know but they could have under the table agenda to achieve. I personally believe the real agenda is to make a lastditch effort to show to the world as well as to American uh publics that the the US government has done as much as diplomatic efforts as possible.

[00:05:22]So if in the future anything happens, we've tried our best on the U on the Chinese side. I think right now uh Shiin Ping really needed uh Trump's support uh for his diplomatic issues in at home. The XiinP has countered a huge problems especially from within the military as well as the economic side. Of course, Trump's act against Venezuela and Iran also put China in a very awkward position. One is about the oil supply. It did affect the oil supply or not. Two of course is geopolitically these two countries used to be you can say either allies or supporters of China or China's influence side. But now all of these two nations got badly you can say weakened by the US. So internationally the CCP's in influence is get greatly affected. So under this kind of circumstances although both sides have sense to hope for uh to come out of this summit but personally I don't think any real meaningful or significant outcome will come out of this meeting. Miss Jennifer, let me ask you this then. Do you think that President Xiinping is going to convince President Trump to end the war in Iran having in mind that the foreign minister of Iran went to China before the president of the United States?

[00:07:07]I do think uh the CCP has an incentive or motivation to hope that Trump can end the uh actions or milit military strike against the the the Iran because as I said it did affect China's oil supply but on the other side I think if uh Shiinping really need the the war to be end the only thing he needs to do is to stop stop supporting Iran. Um, as far as I can see, the reason why Iran is, I think, more resilience uh than most of us have expected, is exactly because uh the CCP has been supporting Iran for a long period of time, not just from now and from all fronts, from militarily and and economically and technologically.

[00:08:06]So if the CCP really wants the war to end, it the first thing it can do is to stop uh offering any more support to Iran.

[00:08:18]>> All right, Miss Jennifer, let's see how this uh meeting coincides or happens between President Xiinping and President Donald Trump. But for now, thank you for talking to us today.

[00:08:30]>> Thank you for having me.