US President Donald Trump plans to travel to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping (習近平) as the two leaders look to navigate a trade relationship again plunged into uncertainty and navigate tensions around Taiwan.
The planned meeting comes as the US Supreme Court on Friday moved to strike down sweeping US tariffs on exports, which seems certain to jumble the dynamics around efforts to extend a truce negotiated last year following months of tit-for-tat tariff escalations.
“I’m going to be going to China in April, that’s going to be a wild one,” Trump said on Thursday during the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington.
Photo: Reuters
The US president said he expects a welcome that includes pomp and ceremony that surpasses his visit to Beijing in 2017 during his first term.
“President Xi, he treated me so well, he gave me a display, I never saw so many soldiers all the same height, exactly the same height,” Trump said. “But I said, ‘You’ve got to top it.’ He said, ‘I’ll top it. We’re going to top it.’”
Trump has said he also expects to welcome Xi to Washington later this year, and the Chinese president is expected to attend a meeting of the G20 in Florida.
It is a marked change from the dynamic between the US and China early last year, when a series of tit-for-tat tariff hikes and export curbs rattled global financial markets and raised fears of an economic downturn. Following months of talks, Trump and Xi reached a one-year agreement in October to lower duties and export restrictions.
Beijing’s main objective in the upcoming talks is extending that truce and officials are likely to push for further tariff rollbacks and an easing of restrictions on the shipment of advanced artificial-intelligence chips, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed people close to the Chinese government.
Friday’s tariff ruling will likely strengthen Beijing’s hand and could make Trump’s expected asks for large quantities of soybean purchases, Boeing Co aircraft, and energy exports a tougher sell.
Narrowing trade deficits have been a persistent focus of Trump. The US’ annual shortfall with China shrank in 2025 to about US$202 billion — a 21-year low, according to US Commerce Department data.
Simmering political tensions — including around Taiwan and US moves in South America — also threaten to intrude on any detente. Xi told Trump in a phone call this month that Beijing would never allow Taiwan to be separated and warned the US should handle arms sales to Taipei with “utmost caution,” according to the Chinese government.
Washington approved a package of arms sales to Taiwan worth as much as US$11 billion in December, and the foreign ministry in Taipei said the US has continued its policy of normalizing arms sales to Taiwan. The December announcement drew swift condemnation from Beijing, though Xi stopped short of demanding Trump halt the sales altogether.
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