Trump heads to Beijing for key summit on trade and tensions | DW News

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]US President Donald Trump is due in Beijing on Wednesday in one of the biggest trips on his international calendar. Trump's talks with China's leader Xi Jinping are aimed at overcoming some of the differences between the two superpowers and could set the tone for the years ahead. It's the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade when Donald Trump himself made the trip in 2017. and he was clearly impressed by his reception in the Chinese capital where officials described the level of pomp and ceremony as state visit plus. This time the summit comes against a backdrop of trade tensions which came to a head last year in a tit for tat tariff war.

[00:00:42]The future of Taiwan too remains a point of contention as the island democracy faces down increasing military pressure from Beijing. Joining me now in the studio is DW's Clifford Kunan, a China analyst whom you may recognize from our business team. Clifford, it's great to have you back in the show. Now, last time Donald Trump went to Beijing in 2017, he was welcomed with what was called a state visit plus there was a lot of pomp and pageantry. Is China going to woo him in the same way this time around or do you expect a more chilly reception? I can't believe it's nine years since the last time he was there. And um and looking at the pictures today, you know, it looks so familiar. But I think it'll be I don't think it's going to be a chilly reception. Um despite the fact that there's a lot of friction between them at the moment over trade, over the Gulf, um the the Iran war, all of these issues that are are dividing them at the moment. But I still think it's going to be very much an attempt to to patch things up or at least head in that direction. Um they have they've got they haven't as said they haven't met for nine years. So they've got quite a lot of work to do. But I think it's going to be you know the great hall of the people all the pageantry all the pump. Trump loves that.

[00:01:54]>> He loves that.

[00:01:54]>> And the Chinese are very good at at dealing with Trump. So I think that's what we're going to see.

[00:01:59]>> What are both sides hoping to get out of this meeting? Well, I think for for Trump, he's talking about a thing called the five Bs, which is sell more Boeings, uh, beef and soybeans.

[00:02:12]>> And he also wants to create a board of investment and a board of trade. Now, these are aimed at separating economic issues from security issues because they have a lot of tension on that. Um, so these 5Bs see see how it goes. I mean, I imagine they will get concessions on on beef and boeings and you know, these sort of deals are easily done. The border of trade is quite interesting.

[00:02:33]You know, he does love boards, Donald Trump. He's always got he's got the peace, bord of peace and border, but um uh he's and this is part of the CEO diplomacy that he has. Um I think the border trade is going to be kind of interesting because if they can actually separate the economic issues from security issues, then they could actually come closer and they could bring these these trade tensions to an end. And as we know, these trade tensions that we've seen with tariffs and everything have caused so much stress to the global economy over the past few years. Would China be up for that?

[00:03:02]>> I think so. I mean, it depends who who manages this border trade, who's the CEO, but I think I think they'll um I think they'll definitely listen to it.

[00:03:11]Um I mean, as I say, I think like things like buying some whatever few hundred Boeings is is something that because they need them anyway. Um, and if that's also if that's also the cost of um of of, you know, making sure that they get these things that they really need from the US, like these AI tech chips and um all these all these other high-tech things that they're being denied at the moment because of of the trade dispute.

[00:03:35]So, I think then they they definitely agree with it.

[00:03:37]>> Let's look at what China wants out of this meeting. Taiwan always a huge topic. What concessions are they going to be pushing for there?

[00:03:44]>> Yeah, this is a big issue at the moment.

[00:03:45]Everyone's slightly worried about maybe that Trump will sell Taiwan down the river. That it in exchange for selling for selling a few Boeings that he he would agree to um you know harsher language on Taiwan independence for example because at the moment it's self-ruuled >> and um and the US has always committed to defending it and that maybe if he softens the language it could be a signal you know so so people are very worried about what what he's going to do on Taiwan. um also on selling arms to Taiwan, which is something that that the US does a lot of to defend Taiwan that maybe he'll agree to to reduce arm sales. So people are very worried about what he's going to do in Taiwan.

[00:04:25]>> Then trade and tariffs and another huge source of friction in the past. Do you get the sense that that is going to change with this meeting that they're going to find common ground? I think at the moment they've um you know they have suspended these they've reduced the tariffs um and they've also from on on Chinese goods and then they've also um um secured critical minerals.

[00:04:50]>> So I think we're going to see a continuation of that. I don't really see anything too much on that. My feeling is that um this is a big deal because the the tariffs are always his his big signature policy for so long.

[00:05:01]>> Secret word.

[00:05:02]>> Exactly. Exactly. So um and part of this this visit is about getting Xiinping and his wife Pong Leuan to go back to to Washington later in the year and I imagine that's much more I can see the pageantry there you know in front of the White House declaring the the the tariff dispute over. I think that's much more Trump style. So that would be my feeling but again as we know we no one can predict what what will happen with Donald Trump. So >> yeah let's look at some of the details here because Trump is traveling with a pretty remarkable business delegation.

[00:05:32]Elon Musk is going with him. Tim Cook of Apple is going with him. Looking at that list, what do you think he's looking for in terms of a deal or deals?

[00:05:43]>> Yeah, I mean, it's oligarchs and tech bros. It's it's really amazing. And also, you've got, you know, you got people there from um from uh Goldman Sachs. You've got a lot of finance people. It's it's almost like the early 2000s again when when the WTO was um had been in when the World Trade Organization when China was admitted to the World Trade Organization. You've suddenly got this feeling that you know that they're trying to open China up again for business >> which is kind of running very counter to what US policy has been on on China for a long time. So it's a very powerful signal I think that that this could be about what could be about what is what is about to happen. Um but we also have um Jensen Hang is not there the head of Nvidia um because I think AI tech is still something that the US very much wants to keep for itself. It wants to be the world leader and the innovator on AI tech. So it's much more in some ways more traditional industries uh and but it's definitely keeping the AI bigwigs in reserve.

[00:06:44]>> We're looking at this meeting. Arguably the two most powerful men on the planet are getting together. Who has the upper hand? There's been a lot of talk about this. I mean, I think Xiinping certainly thinks that he has the upper hand.

[00:06:55]>> And, you know, they've always the Chinese Communist Party, it doesn't have to worry about um opinion polls or four-year cycles. So, they can pretty much take it easy. Whereas, obviously, Trump is his approval ratings are low.

[00:07:08]He needs a win. Iran isn't going well despite what he says. And so, I on on the surface, it looks like like Xiinping does have the upper hand. However, you can never write uh the US off. I mean, if you you know the names we just listed, the people who are traveling with them, you know, these are huge companies and global leaders and China is also struggling with its economy.

[00:07:30]It's still sluggish growth in in the domestic economy particularly because people are not spending money and what it's doing is it's exporting its way out of trouble. So, um China also needs a win. So, I think it's it's going to be interesting to see. I think at the moment is they're pretty evenly matched even if Trump appears to be a little bit more on the ropes perhaps than than Xiinping.

[00:07:49]>> Yeah. The US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessend has called China the biggest risk to the global economy at this point in time. What common interest do Beijing and Washington have?

[00:08:03]>> Well, I think a lot of it is is down to um the issues that we're talking about.

[00:08:07]I mean, these exports that China is doing. It's flooding Europe and Southeast Asia with these these goods that are not going to the US. So, China needs to be exporting to the US again if it wants to kickstart the economy. And when Scott Bessant made those comments, he was saying that these exports are are bringing all these imbalances into the global economy. So, what you see is and that's threatens economic growth within global economic growth. Um but they still have a lot of shared interests and um they're the two biggest economies.

[00:08:39]They for supply chains they need each other. Um China needs the US to buy its goods and they also need to be on the they also need to have uh and China needs to the US needs what it can offer.

[00:08:50]So they do have a lot of common ground.

[00:08:53]>> A meeting to watch. Thank you so much Clifford Kunan.