Trade will be central to the discussions. Trump has said he intends to push Xi to open China's markets to more American firms and to increase Chinese purchases of U.S. goods such as soybeans, beef, and aircraft. The Trump administration also hopes to establish a bilateral Board of Trade to manage economic differences between the two countries, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Traveling with Trump, according to The New York Times, are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, joined by a contingent of more than a dozen business executives. The corporate roster includes Tim Cook of Apple $AAPL, Jensen Huang of Nvidia $NVDA, Elon Musk of Tesla $TSLA and SpaceX, Larry Fink of BlackRock $BLK, and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs $GS. Also making the journey were Eric Trump, who serves as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, and his wife Lara Trump, according to The New York Times. A Trump Organization spokeswoman said Eric Trump was attending in a personal capacity to support his father and had no plans for business activity in China.
Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in South Korea ahead of Trump's arrival to discuss economic and trade issues, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Taiwan's status is expected to be a significant point of friction. A U.S. arms package for Taiwan valued at $11 billion, which was cleared in December but remains undelivered, is something Trump said he plans to raise with Xi, according to the Los Angeles Times. Ahead of Trump's arrival, the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily ran an editorial warning that Taiwan represents "the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-U.S. relations." A bipartisan group of eight senators sent a letter to the White House ahead of the summit urging that American support for Taiwan "is not up for negotiation," according to abc news.
A proposal for a trilateral nuclear arms agreement among the United States, China, and Russia is also on Trump's agenda for the talks, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited an anonymous senior administration official. Beijing has historically been resistant to joining such a framework.
The summit takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing U.S.-Israel war with Iran, which has contributed to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and rising energy prices globally. Before boarding Air Force One, Trump told reporters that the U.S. had Iran "very much under control" and suggested the conflict would not dominate the Beijing agenda, according to The New York Times.
