Xi warns Trump of 'clashes and even conflicts' over Taiwan; White House readout omits the island

Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump on Thursday that "Taiwan independence and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water" and warned that mishandling the issue could land the two countries in "clashes and even conflicts", according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout after their two-hour bilateral at the Great Hall of the People. In the same exchange, Xi asked whether China and the United States could "overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations" — the rising-versus-ruling-power formulation popularised by Harvard's Graham Allison that Xi has invoked since at least 2014 — telling Trump that Taiwan was "the most important issue in China-US relations". Foreign-ministry spokesperson Mao Ning published the substance of the remarks on X after the closed-door session.

Trump's public posture was almost the inverse. He called Xi a "great leader" and "my friend", told the banquet hall at the Great Hall of the People that he had been given "a magnificent welcome like no other", and extended an invitation to Xi and First Lady Peng Liyuan to visit the White House on September 24. "You are a great leader. We are going to have a fantastic future together," he told Xi in opening remarks; "Great place, incredible — China's beautiful," he added during their post-meeting tour of the 600-year-old Temple of Heaven complex. Xi, in turn, warned that failure to "make it work" would create "a very dangerous situation" and said "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and Make America great again" could "go hand in hand".

The two governments' readouts diverged sharply. The Chinese statement led with Xi's Taiwan warning. The White House statement, by contrast, made no mention of Taiwan at all; it said Trump and Xi agreed the Strait of Hormuz "must remain open to support the free flow of energy", that "Xi made clear China's opposition to the militarisation of the strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use", and that "Iran must never have a nuclear weapon". The same statement said Trump pressed for further progress on stopping fentanyl-precursor chemicals from reaching the United States and on raising Chinese purchases of American farm goods. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC News after the meeting that any Chinese attempt to take Taiwan by force would be "a terrible mistake" and that US policy on the island was unchanged; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Trump "understands the sensitivities" surrounding Taiwan and would address them in coming days.

The Hormuz commitment lands on a near-closed waterway. Iran has all but shut the strait since the US-Israeli war on Iran began at the end of February, with US Central Command saying on X that "as of today, CENTCOM forces have redirected 70 commercial vessels and disabled 4 to ensure compliance" with Trump's blockade on traffic to and from Iranian ports. A Chinese tanker transited the strait on Wednesday, according to shipping data seen by Reuters; Iran's Fars News Agency confirmed an arrangement to let some Chinese ships through, and Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said about 30 vessels had transited since Wednesday evening. Iran is meanwhile standing up what it calls a "Persian Gulf Strait Authority" through which ships must submit cargo, ownership, destination, route and timing in advance for a transit permit; the judiciary's spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, said the capture of "US tankers" violating Iranian rules was being carried out "under domestic and international law". UK Maritime Trade Operations on Thursday reported that "unauthorised personnel" had taken over a vessel anchored off Fujairah and were sailing it toward Iran. An Indian-flagged wooden cargo ship sailing from Somalia to the UAE sank in Omani waters on Wednesday after a fire from a suspected drone or missile strike; all 14 crew were rescued by the Omani coast guard.

The pageantry around the summit was deliberate. Vice President Han Zheng greeted Trump at the airport on Wednesday evening — the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to welcome a sitting US president on arrival — and Thursday's reception included a gun salute, troop inspection and children waving flags along the red carpet. Trump travelled with Rubio, Bessent and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, alongside his son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara, and a business delegation that included Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, Nvidia's Jensen Huang — a last-minute addition who called the meeting "one of the most consequential summits in human history" — BlackRock's Larry Fink, Boeing's Kelly Ortberg, Citi chair and CEO Jane Fraser and Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman. "We asked the top 30 in the world," Trump said. Premier Li Qiang held parallel talks with the US executives. The banquet menu featured lobster in tomato soup, Beijing roast duck and pan-fried pork buns, with trumpet-shell pastries and tiramisu for dessert.

The meeting was Trump's first state visit to Beijing since 2017 and his first sit-down with Xi since the two met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea last October — an encounter that bought only a temporary tariff pause, with Trump dropping his threat of 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing pausing its restrictions on rare-earth-metal exports. The two leaders are due to meet again on Friday before Trump returns to Washington, with a further encounter likely at the APEC leaders' meeting in Shenzhen in November.