Trump leaves – U.S. President Donald Trump left Beijing without sweeping agreements on key disputes after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though he praised the talks as “very good.” Taiwan, technology, Iran, rare earths, and supply-chain dependence remained unr
When Donald Trump stepped away from the podium after a China summit that he said covered “almost everything” with Xi Jinping, the message coming out of Beijing was just as careful. Praise for the relationship was abundant, but the thorny issues that could test it most remained unresolved.
Trump and Xi concluded the high-stakes meeting this week with only a handful of measurable outcomes. according to statements and readouts from both sides.. Trump said he discussed arms sales to Taiwan “in great detail” and hinted he would decide soon on a long-delayed package worth $14 billion. even as Taiwan was notably absent from Washington’s official readout.
In a statement. Craig Singleton. the China program senior director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. said “Neither side moved on the issues that matter most.” He pointed to unresolved disputes including technology. Taiwan. Iran. rare earths. and supply-chain dependence. arguing that the summit managed the moment but did not settle the underlying contest.
Taiwan hung over the final days. with Xi warning of “clashes and even conflicts” with the United States over the issue if it was not handled “properly.” While the warning was not new. the force of Beijing’s comments underlined how sensitive the topic is for China. and how Xi framed it as the most important issue in U.S.-China relations. according to a Chinese readout.
Trump did not confirm whether the United States would defend Taiwan militarily, saying Xi asked about it but that Washington follows a policy of “strategic ambiguity.” The president also told reporters that “the last thing we need right now is war 9,500 miles away.”
He said Xi raised the Taiwan question in their discussions, adding: “What am I going to say? I don’t want to talk to you about it, because I have an agreement that was signed in 1982?”
Trump’s remarks about discussing Taiwan arms sales have alarmed some supporters on the island, with experts warning that such consultations could violate longstanding U.S. policy that prohibits official discussions with Taiwan.
On trade and the broader balance of power, both sides also left room for doubt.. For China. one of the biggest questions remained whether last year’s truce with Washington on trade could hold. even as Beijing faces high youth unemployment. weak consumer demand. and concerns about how long it can withstand energy shocks from the Iran war.
A former senior Trump administration trade official. speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive dynamic. said the Chinese leadership has concluded that “nothing they can do is going to change the approach of the U.S.. trade policy for the next couple of years. ” so its focus has shifted to finding an arrangement that allows China “to survive without suffering a major economic hardship.”
The official added that Trump was “not in the mood to make concessions,” and suggested the current moment does not resemble earlier periods when he was “less stubborn.”
One thing Trump said he did not discuss was a reduction in tariffs.
The summit also unfolded under the shadow of the war in Iran.. Trump said he will make a decision over the next few days on whether to lift sanctions on Chinese oil companies that buy Iranian oil.. Separately. he reiterated a hardline posture on Iran. telling Fox News that failure to reach a nuclear agreement would mean “annihilation.”
China’s official readout of the meeting made no specific mention of Iran. saying only that Xi and Trump “exchanged views on major international and regional issues including the Middle East situation.” Trump. though. said Friday that the two agreed the war needed to end and that Xi promised not to provide military equipment to Tehran.
Trump said he did not want to ask Xi for favors “because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return,” but that their talks still addressed Iran repeatedly in Trump’s public remarks.
There were limited commercial and diplomatic bright spots.. On Friday. the two-day summit ended with commitments Trump announced for purchases of 200 Boeing aircraft. with a tentative promise that the order could be even higher if it goes well.. Trump also said the leaders made a deal for China to buy “billions of dollars” of soybeans.
Trump said he raised the case of Jimmy Lai. 78. the Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher who was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year after being convicted on national security charges.. China has said Lai, who pleaded not guilty, was the “mastermind” behind anti-government protests in 2019.
“I did bring it up. It’s a tougher one,” Trump told reporters.
A key reason the meeting may have produced so few hard outcomes. analysts said. is that Trump appeared to steer the talks toward dialogue rather than ultimatums.. Michael Pillsbury. a China scholar at the Heritage Foundation. said Trump chose to keep dialogue open by postponing ultimatums going into the meetings.
Pillsbury said Trump framed everything as “a talk. ” which is “much easier for the Chinese to go along with” than if the U.S.. had said it was “coming to cut something off.” He described the approach as a departure from Trump’s first-term posture and said the leaders discussed how they could meet three more times this year—during a state visit in Washington. at the G20. and at APEC.
Trump’s decision to bring his defense secretary on the trip—something he did not do in 2017—was also portrayed by some as a sign of trust with Beijing on Iran-related planning. Pillsbury said it would send a message to Tehran that the U.S. is coordinating closely with China.
On rare earths, the stakes are especially high for Washington.. The two sides previously agreed. after Trump and Xi met last year in Busan. South Korea. on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. to a one-year moratorium on export licenses for rare-earth minerals.. The moratorium and a trade truce followed Trump’s decision to hike tariffs on Chinese goods as high as 145%.
The former Trump official said extending the moratorium would be a major win for Trump, while noting the U.S. effort to boost domestic extraction and refining has moved slowly.
“The Chinese are not in a position to come to agreements about the future of critical minerals, which is really one of their principal levers of power,” the official said.
They added that Washington’s path to leverage could come through what amounts to signaling—suggesting Beijing might allow the minerals to continue exiting its “fortress” without saying so directly.
On the questions that defined the summit’s tension—especially Taiwan—both sides left the door open while pushing the toughest decisions into the next phase.. Xi had invoked the “Thucydides Trap. ” a warning that conflict can arise when a rising power threatens an existing one. while Trump tried to soften that rhetoric.
In his first Truth Social post from China. Trump wrote that Xi “very elegantly” referred to the United States as “perhaps being a declining nation. ” and Trump said Xi was referring to “the tremendous damage” inflicted during Joe Biden’s administration.. Trump added that Xi congratulated him on “many tremendous successes in such a short period of time.”
On Friday. Trump and Xi wrapped up the summit without broad agreements on the core disputes. but both sides marked the outcome as a step toward stability.. After Trump boarded Air Force One. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning bid “farewell” to the Trump team and summarized the outcome as “a new beginning.”
Trump appeared to agree with that framing, writing on Truth Social: “Hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”
United States China Donald Trump Xi Jinping Taiwan arms sales Boeing soybeans Iran rare earths trade truce