Trump and Xi Meet in Beijing Amid Tensions Over Iran, Taiwan, and Trade

Donald Trump descended the stairs of Air Force One in Beijing on a Wednesday evening to find three hundred young Chinese in white uniforms cheering and waving flags in unison. He raised his fist in celebration. Hours later, in the ornate Great Hall of the People, he stood beside Xi Jinping as a Chinese military band played the American national anthem, followed by cannon fire and the Chinese anthem. The two leaders of the world's largest economies were meeting for a summit that would stretch across two days, and they had chosen to begin with ceremony and warmth.

Both men spoke carefully in those opening moments. Trump said he was honored to be there, that the relationship between China and America would be better than ever, that he was proud to call Xi his friend. Xi responded that the world stood at a crossroads, that when the two nations cooperated both benefited, and when they fought both suffered. He called for partnership rather than opposition. Neither leader mentioned the tensions that had brought them to this moment—the war in Iran, the unresolved trade disputes, the question of Taiwan, the competition over artificial intelligence and rare earth exports. The rhetoric was optimistic. The reality was more complicated.

Trump had arrived with an entourage that signaled his intentions. Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Elon Musk of Tesla traveled with him, symbols of the commercial deals he hoped to strike. He had promised on social media to pressure Xi to open China to American companies, to let brilliant people do their work. But the landscape had shifted since Trump and Xi last met in October in South Korea, where they had agreed to pause a grinding trade war in which the United States had imposed three-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing had threatened to restrict the global supply of rare earths. That war had been suspended, not resolved.

The Iran conflict had changed everything. The United States was now locked in a war with Iran, China's closest partner in the Middle East. The fighting had triggered a global energy crisis and pulled American military resources away from Asia—the very region where China's ambitions were expanding. American ammunition stocks had been depleted. Some Chinese analysts were now questioning whether the United States had the capacity to defend Taiwan, the autonomous democracy that Washington supported and Beijing claimed as its own. Trump's negotiating position had weakened in ways that were difficult to hide.

Xi faced his own pressures. Economic growth in China had slowed. Energy prices had risen. The possibility of a global recession loomed, and China's export-dependent economy would suffer if it came. The two leaders needed something from this summit—a way to stabilize a relationship that had grown increasingly tense, a path forward that would allow both to claim victory at home.

The agenda was dense. Trump wanted to extend the one-year tariff truce that had been agreed in October, though a new agreement was far from certain. He wanted commercial deals in agriculture and aviation. He wanted to discuss Taiwan, and had already signaled that he might consult with Xi before selling weapons to the island—a departure from decades of American practice that would be watched closely by Taiwan and by American allies in the region. China's controls on rare earth exports, the rivalry in artificial intelligence, the tangled commercial relationship between the two countries—all of these would be on the table.

Trump was hoping for a "big hug" from Xi, betting on what he believed was a strong personal relationship. He wanted to leave Beijing with a date set for Xi to visit Washington later in 2026, a reciprocal gesture that would demonstrate the warmth between them. But both men would be searching for any victory they could claim, while trying to prevent the relationship from deteriorating further. The summit would last two days. On Friday, they would have tea and lunch together before Trump returned to Washington. What emerged from those conversations would shape the next chapter of great power competition.