Beijing: US President Donald Trump will pay an official visit to China from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Monday.
This will be the first visit to China by a US president in almost nine years. Trump himself was the last US president to visit China in 2017, during his first term.
The visit comes amid a prolonged war in West Asia involving the US-Israel and Iran, a crisis over the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz causing a global energy crisis, and increasing tensions between the US and China over a host of issues, including Taiwan.
Speaking about the engagements between the leaders, the senior US officials said that Trump and Xi had spoken multiple times about Iran and also about Russia and how Chinese revenue provides for not only components but also the potential of weapons exports to these two countries.
They said, “The President has spoken multiple times with General Secretary Xi Jinping about the topic of Iran and about the topic of Russia, to include the revenue that China provides for both those regimes and therefore as well as do use goods, components and parts, not to mention the potential of weapons exports.”
Senior US officials also said that topics expected between the two sides include continued work on a US-China Board of Trade and Board of Investment. The two countries will focus on identifying mutual areas of interest in trade.
The two sides will also discuss additional agreements on industry, spanning aerospace, agriculture and energy, and following this productive visit, Trump looks forward to hosting President Xi and Madam Peng for a reciprocal visit in Washington DC later this year, the official said.
The official said that the two leaders have an ongoing conversation about Taiwan and that there has been no change in American policy.
When asked if there was a potential shift in the stance of the United States towards Taiwan ahead of the meeting, the officials said, “There is an ongoing conversation between President Trump and General Secretary Xi Jinping about Taiwan. Certainly, the last couple of times they’ve interacted, it has been a point of discussion. There’s been no change of US policy coming out of those. We don’t expect to see any changes in US policy going forward.”
The remarks come after the US last week announced a new wave of sanctions targeting Iran’s financial and energy networks, escalating pressure on Tehran’s oil revenues and its commercial links with China.
In a post on X, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described Iran as “the head of the snake for global terrorism”, adding that under the leadership of US President Donald Trump, the Treasury was acting “aggressively” through the initiative titled “Economic Fury”.
He said, “Iran is the head of the snake for global terrorism, and under @POTUS’ leadership, Treasury is moving aggressively, through Economic Fury, to sever the Iranian military’s financial lifelines. We will relentlessly target the regime’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds, and pursue anyone enabling Tehran’s attempts to evade sanctions.”
