Trump to Meet Xi Jinping in Beijing This Week in First U.S.-China Presidential Summit Since 2017

May 11, 2026

President Donald Trump will travel to Beijing during the week of May 11, 2026, for the first U.S.-China presidential summit since 2017, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid heightened trade tensions and geopolitical complexity. The summit occurs as China pursues a 'dual circulation' self-reliance strategy to reduce dependency on foreign technology and resources while maintaining its export-led economic model, and as Beijing may seek U.S. concessions on Taiwan following a December 2025 arms sale that was paused after Xi expressed displeasure in February 2026. The U.S. has floated a 'Board of Trade' mechanism to streamline non-critical trade, though any bilateral agreement could displace European exports and signal the obsolescence of WTO rules. The meeting helps Xi project an image as a stable global statesman after hosting multiple European leaders, while Trump continues expressing admiration for Xi despite China's support for Russia's assault on Ukraine and ongoing militarization of the South China Sea.

US-China presidential summit

▪Donald Trump has often expressed admiration for Xi Jinping, calling Xi Jinping 'brilliant' and 'good-looking'
▪The U.S. side floated the idea of a 'Board of Trade' mechanism to streamline trade in non-critical areas ahead of the May 2026 summit
▪The May 2026 Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing is the first U.S.-China presidential summit since 2017
▪Donald Trump will meet Xi Jinping in Beijing during the week of May 11, 2026
▪John Bolton alleged that Donald Trump told Xi Jinping that building camps to detain hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang was 'exactly the right thing to do'
▪Donald Trump called Xi Jinping a 'tremendous guy' during the week of May 11, 2026

Middle East diplomacy leverage

▪The United States has been urging China to use its leverage over Tehran to help end a war that the United States started
▪Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to China during the week of May 11, 2026 to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
▪Iran sells 90% of its crude exports to China
▪Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pressed Iran to negotiate an end to the war and called for a prompt resumption of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz during the May 2026 meeting

Taiwan sovereignty tensions

▪Beijing may press for a U.S. rhetorical shift from 'does not support' to 'opposes' Taiwanese independence during the May 2026 summit
▪In 1971, Henry Kissinger pledged the U.S. would not support Taiwanese independence in exchange for China's help in ending the Vietnam War
▪Taiwan produces approximately 90% of the world's most advanced computer chips, most of them designed by American companies
▪After a February 2026 phone conversation between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping during which Xi Jinping expressed displeasure, the December 2025 arms shipment to Taiwan was paused
▪A massive U.S. arms sale to Taiwan in December 2025 drew stern condemnation from Beijing
▪The Trump administration as of May 2026 has said little about China's ongoing militarisation of the South China Sea and encroachment on territory belonging to key U.S. allies such as the Philippines

Xi Jinping's statesman positioning

▪Xi Jinping stated 'the East is rising and the West is declining'
▪The May 2026 meeting with Donald Trump helps Xi Jinping portray an image that Xi Jinping is a reliable, stable, global statesman
▪Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Pedro Sanchez, and Michéal Martin have travelled to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping prior to May 2026

Perspective of China

▪China signals readiness for confrontation with the United States while also expressing interest in greater stability in bilateral relations ahead of the May 2026 summit