Trump departs for delayed two-day Beijing summit with Xi Jinping, his first China visit in nearly nine years

Donald Trump began his travel to Beijing on Tuesday for a two-day summit with Xi Jinping, his first visit to China in nearly nine years. The president was due to fly first to Anchorage, Alaska, before continuing to the Chinese capital, where he is scheduled to land Wednesday night for bilateral meetings, a tour of the Temple of Heaven, a state dinner on Thursday and tea with Xi on Friday before departure. The visit, originally planned for April, had been postponed in the hope the US-Israeli war on Iran would be over by the time the two leaders met.

The Iran war is now the dominant ask. Washington has sought Beijing's help — as Tehran's closest major backer and the world's largest buyer of Iranian oil — to convince Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the conflict. Beijing's leverage was put on display a week before the summit, when it hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to highlight the depth of the China–Iran relationship.

For any cooperation on Iran, Xi is expected to seek movement on Taiwan in return. Analysts cited by the Guardian say China wants the United States to declare opposition to Taiwanese sovereignty and either delay or ultimately limit arms sales to the island. Trump confirmed the agenda would include Taiwan's defence: "President Xi would like us not to, and I'll have that discussion," he told reporters. "That's one of the many things I'll be talking about."

The trade backdrop is equally raw. The two leaders' last meeting, in October, paused a fresh round of tit-for-tat tariffs from 2025. In February that year Trump imposed 20 percent tariffs on China, accusing it of allowing fentanyl to flow into the United States; Beijing retaliated with 15 percent tariffs on US coal and liquefied natural gas and 10 percent on oil and agricultural machinery. Trump is now trying to keep that truce alive while pressing China on Iran.

The make-up of Trump's travelling party signals technology and supply-chain talks. Confirmed names include Apple's outgoing chief executive Tim Cook, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta president Dina Powell McCormick, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. The Guardian noted Trump's administration has at the same time been looking at China's stricter AI regime, which requires AI companies to submit models to Beijing for review on national-security and political-sensitivity grounds.

Trump arrives in Beijing with the Iran ceasefire under visible strain. The president told reporters this week the truce was "on massive life support" and dismissed Tehran's latest peace proposal — calling for an end to the war, lifting of the US blockade and release of frozen Iranian assets — as "totally unacceptable", saying he "didn't even finish reading it". Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told the House defence subcommittee on Tuesday that the Pentagon now estimates the cost of the Iran war at "closer" to $29 billion, up from the $25 billion figure reported on April 29; CFO Jules Hurst III attributed the rise to "repair and replacement of equipment" and "general operational costs". Hegseth said the department has plans "to escalate if necessary" and "to retrograde, if necessary".

The Beijing trip was foreshadowed in early May, when Trump signalled the visit on May 5, then publicly weighed delay on May 8 as the Iran war complicated the calendar. The summit has now landed — without a war ended.