Trump’s arrival in Beijing is scheduled to begin with a welcome ceremony on Wednesday night, followed by a one-on-one meeting with Xi the next morning, according to the White House, before the leaders tour the Temple of Heaven. Trump is then expected to attend a state banquet on Thursday evening and take part in a tea and working lunch with Xi on Friday before leaving, with White House spokesperson Anna Kelly outlining the agenda on Sunday.
Kelly said Trump and Xi will discuss creating a new Board of Trade to keep their countries talking on economic issues, while also highlighting key industries including energy, aerospace and agriculture. She said the trip would be “symbolically and substantively significant,” and added that Trump “cares about results, not symbols,” even as she described the upcoming summit as an important moment in the relationship.
On the Chinese side, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters that Beijing is willing to work with the U.S., based on equality and mutual respect, to expand cooperation, manage differences and add stability to a turbulent world. He said the diplomacy between the leaders “plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role” in the bilateral relationship.
The tone of the trip is expected to be more restrained than earlier high-splendor state visits, even though Trump has long publicly praised Xi. Long before the trip, Trump predicted on social media that Xi would “give me a big, fat hug when I get there.” The AP report said Beijing’s deep economic ties to Iran and longstanding trade tensions over tariff threats from Trump’s first term could crimp the atmosphere, even as Trump has for years effusively praised Xi.
In 2017, during Trump’s first-term visit to China, Beijing staged a broad ceremonial program that included Trump’s access to a tour of the Forbidden City and a private dinner there, along with a later welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People and a military parade. Ali Wyne, a senior U.S.-China research and advocacy adviser for the Washington nonprofit Crisis Group, said the Chinese delegation would likely seek to ensure Trump leaves believing he has concluded the most extraordinary state visit of his two presidencies.
Wyne, however, said “the pomp and circumstance would serve a different role now than they did when he first visited Beijing,” arguing that Xi has a much better understanding of Trump and that U.S. national security strategy and defense strategy now recognize China as a near-peer. Jonathan Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council during the Biden administration who is now at Brookings, said expectations for what gets accomplished may be lower this time, predicting that China could be “working backward from our midterm elections” with the idea that leverage increases as Election Day approaches.
The report said Trump’s own travel preferences also shape the schedule, noting that he is not fond of long plane rides or extended time away from the White House and his Florida and New Jersey properties. Czin also pointed to Xi’s travel habits, saying Xi does not like long-distance trips and does not “do personal connections” in the way Trump does, while noting that Xi led a military purge in January that included replacing officials with long-standing personal ties to his family. Wyne said Xi, though, “appreciates that he is unlikely to deal with another U.S. president who admires him as greatly and embraces as narrow a view of strategic competition,” adding that he may try to pocket as many economic and security concessions as possible from Trump.
Beyond diplomacy, trade disputes remain a sticking point for U.S.-China talks. During Trump’s 2017 visit, he announced $250 billion in nonbinding trade deals, some of which never materialized, and a later $200 billion round of trade deals announced in 2020 also largely failed to come to fruition before his first term ended. More recently, the report said Trump’s steep global tariffs prompted China to cut off purchases of U.S. soybeans and clamp down on exports of rare earth minerals used by American factories, even as tensions eased after the U.S. reached a trade truce last fall that limited tariffs on both sides.
The AP report also said the White House expects Trump to apply pressure on China regarding Iran, pointing to China’s strong economic ties to Tehran and the risk that the war could hurt Iran’s economy and, through it, China’s leverage in negotiations. The report said China has used its position as the largest purchaser of Iranian oil to encourage Iran to accept a fragile ceasefire, and that lasting peace could boost China’s standing in trade discussions with the Trump administration.
Trump’s meetings with Xi could extend beyond Beijing, with the report stating Trump plans to host Xi at the White House after the trip. It also said Trump might attend the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Shenzhen, and that Xi could come to the Group of 20 summit the following month at Trump’s resort in Doral, Florida.