President Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night, stepping off Air Force One to a red-carpet welcome featuring an honor guard and flag-waving students. He is in China for a summit with its top leader, Xi Jinping, that could determine the next stage in the relationship between the world’s two superpowers.
The two leaders are expected to discuss contentious issues like trade, the war in Iran and the self-governed island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. When they last met, in South Korea in October, they agreed to pause their trade war, in which the United States imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods, and China threatened to throttle the global supply of minerals crucial to advanced manufacturing. The Beijing talks could determine whether that uneasy détente holds.
Mr. Trump will be in China for two days of meetings. He is being accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, among other senior officials. High-profile executives are also traveling with the president, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook, the chief of Apple.
