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Donald Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday demanding Chinese President Xi Jinping “open up” the country to corporate America as he sought to put stronger business ties at the heart of his visit for a two-day summit.
The call from the US president, who is being accompanied to China by top executives, came ahead of meetings on Thursday and Friday clouded by geopolitical tensions over Iran and Taiwan and by conflict over trade and technology that has strained ties between the world’s largest economies.
Trump said his “very first request” to Xi would be to create a more favourable environment for top American companies, which have long complained of regulatory obstacles to their operations in China.
In a post on his Truth Social platform as he flew to China on Air Force One following a refuelling stop in Alaska, Trump listed top US business leaders who would be attending the summit, including key figures on Wall Street such as Blackstone chief Stephen Schwarzman and BlackRock’s Larry Fink, as well as Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX and Apple’s Tim Cook.
Trump also said that Jensen Huang, chief executive of chipmaker Nvidia, had joined him on the flight to Beijing in Alaska, after he was initially not expected to attend.
“I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “In fact, I promise, that when we are together, which will be in a matter of hours, I will make that my very first request,” he added.
At the airport in Beijing, Trump was greeted by a military honour guard with a band and about 300 Chinese young people waving Chinese and US flags and chanting “Welcome, welcome!”. A beaming Trump pumped his fist in encouragement to them before making his way to his limousine for the ride to his hotel.
The US president has been trying to stabilise economic relations with China after Washington’s move to slap higher tariffs on Chinese imports last year prompted Beijing to restrict rare earth exports. Trump and Xi agreed a one-year trade truce when they met in South Korea last October.
During their meetings in Beijing, the two leaders are expected to discuss additional Chinese purchases of US goods and other ways to ease trade friction between the countries.
Trump said Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg would be in Beijing for the summit, with a large order of its planes from China likely to be the main commercial agreement of the meeting. Dina Powell McCormick, vice chair of Meta, and a former US government official during Trump’s first term, is also part of the business delegation.
But business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce have warned that Beijing is continuing to expand state industrial intervention to benefit domestic companies, making it increasingly difficult for US businesses to compete in the Chinese market.
Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, and Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, will be flanking Trump during talks with Xi, along with Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. Pete Hegseth is also attending, making him the first US defence secretary to accompany a US president on a trip to China.
Trump sparked alarm in Taipei and among Asian allies by saying ahead of his trip that he would discuss US arms sales to Taiwan with Xi.
On Thursday, Trump and Xi are expected to hold a first round of talks at the Great Hall of the People near Tiananmen Square, with what the White House described as a “state banquet” set for the evening. A second round of talks is planned for Friday before Trump flies back to Washington.
Trump’s visit to China is his first international trip since he travelled to Davos, Switzerland in January, before the US launched its war with Israel against Iran.
The Middle Eastern conflict has sent Trump’s approval ratings plunging as US petrol prices have soared and reignited inflation that the president had vowed to defeat during his 2024 election campaign.
Trump was initially planning to travel to China in late March and early April, but delayed the visit until after he reached a ceasefire with Iran.
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