China has confirmed that discussions were under way about US President Donald Trump’s planned visit in April, when sources said the two sides were expected to extend their current trade truce by up to one year.
Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesman, said President Xi Jinping had repeated an invitation to Trump to visit when the pair spoke by phone last week.
“The two sides are in communication on this,” Lin added, stressing the importance of talks between the two heads of state.
The two reached an uneasy truce when they met in South Korea in October, agreeing to roll back tariffs and export controls after months of spiralling tensions marked by triple-digit “retaliatory” levies and Beijing’s sweeping boycott of US agricultural goods for much of 2025.
Since then, China has resumed purchases of American soybeans, a politically sensitive crop in the US.
Extending the informal understanding by up to a year – a step seen by officials as realistic and achievable – would anchor the summit around short-term economic wins that included fresh Chinese commitments, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
Trump is pressing for tangible deliverables ahead of November’s midterm elections amid mounting concerns about keeping his congressional majority.
After his nearly two-hour-long call with Xi last week, Trump said Beijing was considering buying more soybeans from the US.
Trump is expected to visit China in early April, according to four people familiar with the plans.
Two of them said his arrival date might be put back to March 31 with the visit, including the meeting with Xi, to last for around three days.
The timing remained under discussion, the sources added, as Beijing weighed scheduling around the Ching Ming, or tomb-sweeping, festival, which falls on April 5.
Although neither the White House nor Beijing have formally finalised the dates, multiple sources said they expected the early April window to be confirmed.
One person familiar with Trump’s travel plans said no American chief executives had yet been invited to join his business delegation, as the “America first” administration was wary of being seen encouraging US companies to invest in China.
Trump considers himself a master deal maker, however, and another source familiar with the discussions said auto and energy agreements could be announced eventually, with the recently concluded TikTok deal emerging as a potential model for agreements in other industries.
Last week, Trump said he was “very much” looking forward to his visit to China after speaking on the phone with Xi. The US president first signalled his intention to travel to Beijing shortly after the South Korean summit.
The sit-down came after Trump eased Chinese restrictions on some advanced US semiconductors in exchange for similar steps from Beijing on critical minerals and rare earth materials used in hi-tech manufacturing.
China’s top diplomat in Washington said on Tuesday that relations had recently achieved an “overall dynamic stability”, despite the “ups and downs” of the past year.
Speaking at a Lunar New Year reception at the embassy, Ambassador Xie Feng called for closer cooperation in agriculture, energy and the economy, and to “foster new growth points” in sectors such as counter-narcotics, law enforcement, biomedicine and artificial intelligence. Xie also urged both sides to avoid viewing each other “through a zero-sum lens”.
The ambassador stressed, however, that Taiwan remained a “red line that must not be crossed”, and urged the US to “earnestly abide by” the one-China principle and the three US-China communiques, echoing the message Xi conveyed last week in his phone call with Trump.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
Another person familiar with the talks said Beijing had consistently identified Taiwan as the chief potential flashpoint, warning that recent US arms sales to the island could jeopardise progress.
In the lead-up to the visit, a team of senior US Treasury officials travelled to Beijing last week “to strengthen the channels of communication” between the two sides, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Monday.
Just hours later, in a social media post, Bessent said the “mutual respect” between Xi and Trump had brought ties to what he described as a “stable but competitive point”.
“Our goal is fair competition and de-risking, not decoupling,” he added. “It is clear that China must rebalance, and their persistent US$1 trillion trade surplus must be addressed.”
Bessent is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in the coming weeks to discuss the summit’s deliverables. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING
