Trump-Xi Summit: Trade, Taiwan, AI, and Iran on the Agenda for White House Meeting

Xi is visiting the White House for the first time in a decade, heading an economy whose trade surplus is forecast to reach $1 trillion for the second year running. With poll numbers under pressure and tensions persisting with Iran, Trump has been negotiating trade deals he can point to as wins for consumers grappling with elevated prices. An international summit of heads of state, set for 24 September, is scheduled to follow Trump's visit to Beijing earlier in May. Will trade talks end in agreement or further conflict? Investors will be watching closely to see whether the tariff suspension reached at the Trump-Xi summit in South Korea last October receives an extension ahead of its 10 November deadline. Talks between Boeing and China over a prospective deal — which people familiar with the matter say could cover roughly 500 737 MAX jets and several dozen wide-body aircraft — have made little headway over recent years, a period during which Trump's threats to limit Chinese access to vital spare engine parts have complicated progress. A media organisation reported last month that China had been supplying Iran with merchandise valued at billions of dollars, in apparent contravention of the sanctions regime currently in place. When presenting a campaign aimed at pressuring Iran last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stopped short of extending financial penalties to cover Chinese banking institutions, while calling on other countries to cut economic ties with Tehran. According to reports, a briefing indicating that Iran had acquired satellite images of a Jordanian military base via Chinese intermediaries — information that preceded an attack in which three American service members were killed — was set aside by Trump without action. China has been using Taiwan as a point of leverage in its discussions with Trump, while the self-governed territory — which Beijing claims as part of its sovereign domain — also holds a commanding share of global advanced chip production. U.S. law requires the government to provide Taiwan with weapons for its defence, though a weapons package worth up to $14 billion has remained in limbo following Trump's trip to Beijing. People familiar with Beijing's diplomatic thinking have told reporters that China wants Trump to commit publicly to actively opposing Taiwanese independence, a harder line than the longstanding policy of simply withholding support for it. Any shift in the United States' stance on Taiwan could face pushback from Congress, raise questions among regional partners across Asia, and prompt broader debate about the country's obligations to the island's defence. Beijing's state-run media described Amodei's stance as an outdated holdover from Cold War-era ideology, while Trump pushed back against proposals to slow AI development, arguing that those voicing concerns were overstating the risks for their own purposes. Washington has long accused Beijing of failing to adequately restrict the export of fentanyl precursor chemicals, and the tariffs Trump imposed on China over this matter in early 2025 were subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court in February.

Trump-Xi Summit: Trade, Taiwan, AI, and Iran on the Agenda for White House Meeting

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Trump-Xi Summit: Trade, Taiwan, AI, and Iran on the Agenda for White House Meeting

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