BEIJING—President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for his hotly anticipated talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the Iran war, trade, and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
The meat of the summit won't happen until Thursday, when the leaders hold bilateral talks and a formal banquet. But the Chinese offered Trump a pomp-filled welcome, literally rolling out the red carpet for him after Air Force One landed in the Chinese capital.
The president was greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng; Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to Washington; Ma Zhaoxu, executive vice minister of foreign affairs; as well as the U.S. envoy to Beijing, David Perdue, according to the White House. The welcoming ceremony included a military honor guard, a military band, and some 300 Chinese youths waving Chinese and American flags and chanting, “Welcome, welcome! Warm welcome!” as Trump made his way to his waiting limousine.
“We're the two superpowers,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Tuesday for the long flight to Beijing. “We're the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”
The Trump administration hopes to begin the process of establishing a Board of Trade with China to address differences between the countries. The board could help prevent the trade war ignited last year after Trump's tariff hikes, an action China countered through its control of rare earth minerals. That led to a one-year truce last October.
But Trump is visiting Beijing when Iran continues to dominate his domestic agenda. The war has led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, stranding oil and natural gas tankers and causing energy prices to spike. The U.S. president declared that Xi didn’t need to assist in resolving the conflict, even though Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Beijing last week.
Taiwan High on the Agenda
The status of Taiwan will also be a major topic as China is displeased with U.S. plans to sell weapons to the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims as part of its own territory.Trump told reporters Monday that he would be discussing with Xi an $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that the U.S. administration authorized in December but has not yet begun fulfilling. The arms package is the largest ever approved for Taiwan.
But the U.S. leader has demonstrated greater ambivalence toward Taiwan, an approach that’s raising questions about whether Trump could be open to dialing back support for the island democracy.
Trump to Request Xi to 'Open up' China
Trump embarked on Air Force One for the big meeting with a coterie of aides, family members, and business world titans, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk. While en route to Beijing, he posted on social media that his "first request" to Xi during the visit will be to ask the Chinese leader to bolster the presence of U.S. firms in China.Trump Wants 3-Way Nuclear Arms Deal
Trump also intends to raise the idea of the U.S., China, and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing's arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.
The last nuclear arms pact, known as the New START treaty, between Russia and the United States expired in February, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century. As the treaty was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved, and modernized” deal that includes China.
The Pentagon estimates China has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and will have over 1,000 by 2030.