US President Donald Trump will pay a state visit to China from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, the foreign ministry in Beijing said on Monday.
It will mark the first visit to China by an American president in almost nine years and comes at a time of heightened bilateral tensions over a range of issues, including trade, technology and defence.
The timing also intersects with a precarious US-Iran ceasefire and a dual blockade of the Strait of Hormuz that is driving up energy prices and weighing on global economic growth.
On Sunday, US principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening for what she described as a “visit of tremendous symbolic significance”.
According to Kelly, the US leader will attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with Xi on Thursday, followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet.
The two will meet again on Friday for a tea and working lunch, she said, adding that the US planned to host the Chinese leader for a reciprocal visit later this year.
According to Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Monday, Xi “will have in-depth exchanges of views with President Trump on major issues concerning China-US relations and world peace and development”.
Head-of-state diplomacy “plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance” for bilateral ties, Guo said, adding that China stood ready to work with the US to expand cooperation and manage differences.
Both sides announced on Sunday that Vice-Premier He Lifeng would travel to South Korea for trade talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on May 12 and 13 in the final round of negotiations before Trump’s visit.
According to the Chinese commerce ministry, the talks will be “guided by the important consensus” reached between the two leaders at their Busan summit and in previous phone calls, and address “economic and trade issues of mutual concern”.
Trump and Xi last met face-to-face in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in October.
Simmering tensions over trade and technology between the world’s two largest economies have flared anew in the run-up to the China summit, with Beijing’s ties to Tehran emerging as a key focal point as the US-Israeli offensive in Iran enters its 10th week.
The US on Friday sanctioned nine companies and individuals from mainland China and Hong Kong, accusing them of helping Iran’s military.
That was days after Beijing formally invoked its “blocking rules” for the first time, ordering all entities within China to disregard US sanctions imposed on five Chinese oil refineries.
Iran is expected to be high on the agenda when Trump meets Xi this week, along with the Taiwan issue, artificial intelligence (AI), nuclear weapons and critical minerals.
Asked about the two leaders’ possible discussion of Iran, Guo of the foreign ministry said China’s position on the issue had been “consistent” and that Beijing would continue to play a positive role in promoting dialogue to end the war.
The spokesman also pushed back against the American sanctions imposed on Chinese firms last week over their ties with Iran.
“China stands firmly against illicit unilateral sanctions,” Guo said. “We will firmly protect Chinese businesses’ legitimate rights and interests.”
In late April, Beijing also confirmed the blocking of the proposed purchase by Meta Platforms of AI firm Manus, a start-up that is officially registered in Singapore but developed its products in mainland China.
Comfort Ero, president and CEO of International Crisis Group, wrote in a note on Thursday that “the US war on Iran cements a growing perception around the world that Washington is a destabilising superpower, while Beijing is a comparatively steadying – or at least predictable – one”.
“Both Trump and Xi, though, have an interest in a swift, sustained de-escalation,” she said, adding that Trump had got the US bogged down in the Middle East once again, “underscoring that Washington’s long-standing pledge to rebalance towards Asia remains more aspirational than operational”.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was “sure Taiwan will be a topic of conversation” when Trump visited Beijing.
That was days after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi signalled again during a phone call with Rubio that Taiwan would be a priority issue.
Since Trump’s November 2024 re-election, Xi has engaged with him seven times, both in person and virtually.
During their most recent interaction, a phone call on February 4, Xi urged both sides to work together to “make 2026 a year where our two major countries advance towards mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation”.
Trump’s visit this week could also lay the groundwork for further interactions between the leaders during the rest of this year.
The US president has repeatedly said Xi will visit America towards the end of the year, as the Group of 20 leaders’ summit is scheduled to take place in Miami, Florida, in December.
Beijing has also repeatedly described 2026 as a “big year” for China-US relations, marked by “a series of high-level exchanges”.
In a sign of a more upbeat tone in relations ahead of Trump’s visit, Beijing on Monday announced that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the US Department of Justice had jointly dismantled a transnational drug trafficking network.
Law enforcement agencies from both countries carried out “simultaneous” operations in the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Guangdong, as well as the US states of Florida and Nevada, according to China’s National Narcotics Control Commission.
Authorities arrested five suspects, including two Chinese nationals and three US nationals, seizing drugs including protonitazene and bromazolam and “successfully cutting off a drug trafficking route spanning China and the US”, it said.
“The successful resolution of this case marks another major achievement in deepening pragmatic cooperation between Chinese and US anti-narcotics law enforcement agencies, demonstrating the determination of both countries to crack down firmly on drug-related crimes,” according to the statement.
Fentanyl and cross-border drug trafficking have long been among Washington’s top priorities in its talks with Beijing. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
