Trade, Taiwan top priorities for Trump, Xi as two leaders wrap first meeting

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

President Donald Trump’s first visit to China in nearly 10 years has been met with pomp and circumstance as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping engage in an extensive meeting.

The leaders of the world’s two superpowers engaged in many pleasantries as they held a bilateral meeting after a formal greeting, set against the backdrop of Chinese pageantry.

Both leaders set a tone of mutual respect for each other and the two countries.

“I always believed that our two countries have more common interests than differences. Success in one is an opportunity for the other, and a stable bilateral relationship is good for the world. China and the United States both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. We should be partners, not rivals. We should help each other succeed, and prosper together, and find the right way for major countries to get along well with each other in the new era,” Xi told Trump.

Trump praised Xi as a “great leader,” underscoring the relationship between the two countries.

“You and I have known each other now for a long time. In fact, the longest relationship of our two countries that any president and president has had. And that’s to me, an honor. We’ve had a fantastic relationship. We’ve gotten along. When there were difficulties, we worked it out,” Trump told Xi.

“I would call you and you would call me, and whenever we had a problem…We worked that out very quickly, and we’re going to have a fantastic future together. Such respect for China, the job you’ve done. You’re a great leader…Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true. I only say the truth. And I just want to say on behalf of all of the great delegation that we have, we have the greatest businessmen, the biggest and, I guess the best in the world,” Trump added.

While Trump appeared to make trade his top priority leading up to the meeting, he was accompanied by more than a dozen top business leaders from the U.S. in hopes of pushing trade issues with China.

The president headed into the meeting with a trade deficit with China of $202.1 billion in 2025, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. China is the third-largest trade partner with the U.S.

Despite Trump hoping to elevate the trade issue, Chinese leaders entered the meeting with another agenda – Taiwan.

China’s minister of foreign affairs spokesperson, Mao Ning, posted on X, emphasizing that Xi’s top issue with Trump is that if the U.S. doesn’t support China’s stance on Taiwan, it could jeopardize the bilateral relationship.

“President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” Ning wrote. “’Taiwan independence’ and cross-strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water. Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the U.S.”

China doesn’t recognize Taiwan as an independent country, causing tension, with the U.S. recognizing and supporting Taiwan’s independence.

The U.S. continues to sell weapons to Taiwan in defense of China, with the Trump administration having approved an $11 billion arms sale to Taiwan last year. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing the administration to sell more weapons to the nation.

The bilateral meeting lasted more than two hours, and the leaders are scheduled to meet again before Trump departs from China on Friday afternoon.