Trump Holds High-Stakes Meeting With Xi in Beijing

Key issues expected to dominate the Beijing summit include the trade war, the conflict in Iran, human rights, and Taiwan.

Emel Akan

Published: 5/13/2026, 9:37:56 PM EDT

Trump Holds High-Stakes Meeting With Xi in Beijing — U.S. President Donald Trump (R) is greeted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump began a two-day summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on May 14 amid significant tensions between the two countries.

Trump attended a welcome ceremony, followed by a bilateral meeting with Xi. The ongoing trade tensions are expected to dominate discussions between the two leaders.

The latest trade war with China began in early 2025, when Trump announced new reciprocal tariffs, including an additional 34 percent duty on Chinese goods on top of existing tariffs. The Chinese regime escalated with its own tariffs and other measures, including strict export controls on rare earths and magnets, starting a tit-for-tat between the two countries.

By April 10, 2025, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods had reached 145 percent before the United States and China agreed to a temporary truce the following month that suspended most of the new tariffs.

In late October 2025, Trump and Xi met in Busan, South Korea, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where they agreed to extend the truce for another year. Xi also agreed to pause export controls and licensing rules on rare-earths and critical minerals, keeping these supplies available for the U.S. and global markets. According to a Trump administration official, the agreement remains in effect until October, with its extension being a possible discussion during the summit.

Trump brought to Beijing a large group of U.S. business executives, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Cargill’s Brian Sikes, and Citi’s Jane Fraser.

During the two-day summit, the U.S. delegation is hoping to secure new agreements and purchase commitments from China in aerospace, agriculture, and energy.

“The American people can expect the president to deliver more good deals on behalf of our country,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told reporters during a call on May 10.

After their bilateral meeting, Trump and Xi are scheduled to tour the Temple of Heaven before attending a state banquet that evening.

Iran Conflict

The Beijing summit is being held against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which shows little sign of reaching a resolution soon.

Washington has criticized China for its close ties with Iran. China is Iran's biggest oil buyer, main trading partner, and a long-time ally. The Trump administration has urged the Chinese regime to support U.S. efforts to keep open the Strait of Hormuz, a key international oil transit corridor that the Iranian regime has effectively blocked.

Although Trump has repeatedly urged Beijing to pressure Tehran, this is not Washington's primary concern, officials said. The main worry, as with Russia, is that China provides support to Iran through oil revenue and possibly by supplying weapons.

The president has spoken multiple times with Xi about Iran and Russia, including the revenue China provides to both regimes, a senior administration official told reporters during a call on Sunday. The talks involved “goods, components, parts,” as well as “potential of weapons exports.”

“I expect that conversation to continue,” the official said.

Before leaving for Beijing, Trump compared the Iran ceasefire to a patient with the slimmest chance of survival.

“I would call it the weakest right now, after reading a piece of garbage,” Trump said, referring to the latest proposal sent by Tehran. "I didn't even finish reading it."

“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support.”

Taiwan and human rights issues will also likely take center stage during the bilateral discussions.

A Different Rubio

One of the most notable aspects of this trip is that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has joined Trump and will meet face-to-face with CCP officials who sanctioned him in 2020. Rubio was targeted by Beijing because of his long-standing criticism of the Chinese regime.

After Rubio became Secretary of State, officials in Beijing quietly changed a Chinese character in his name to give the impression that sanctions targeted a different “Rubio,” not the current U.S. secretary of state.

In 2020, Beijing sanctioned Rubio twice during his tenure as a U.S. senator from Florida for calling out the CCP’s violations of human rights, including its genocide of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, the erosion of Hong Kong’s democracy and its rule of law, and its decades-long persecution of Falun Gong.

In 2024, Rubio introduced a bill aimed at deterring the Chinese regime’s state-sanctioned killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs.

On May 5, at a White House press conference, Rubio said that human rights violations, including forced organ harvesting, remain important priorities for the administration.

“We always raise those issues, and they remain true,” Rubio said in response to a question from NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times. “They’re important to us, among others, of course, but those issues remain prominent in our view and in our conversation about these things, and we’ll continue to raise them in the appropriate forums.”

On May 11, Trump told reporters that he planned to discuss with Xi the cases of imprisoned media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai and pastor Ezra Jin Mingri.

Others who accompanied Trump on this trip include his son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

From The Epoch Times