Trump to wrap up visit in Beijing

已複製連結

US President Donald Trump
and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet on Friday to wrap up a two-day state visit that has featured pomp and business deals but also a stark warning from Xi that mishandling the Taiwan issue could push US-China relations to "a very dangerous place."

Trump is on the first visit by a US president to China,
America's main strategic and economic rival, since a 2017 visit during his first term, and has been hoping for tangible results that might improve his dented approval ratings ahead of crucial midterm elections.

The two leaders are scheduled to have tea and lunch before Trump flies back to the United States.

"Hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!" Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform early on Friday.

The summit has been aimed at maintaining a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October and Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths.

Trump has also been expected to urge China to convince Iran to make a deal with Washington to end a war unpopular with American voters.

But he has traveled to Beijing with a weakened hand after US courts limited his ability to levy tariffs at will and as price increases driven by the Iran war have made him politically vulnerable at home.

A brief US summary of Thursday's talks highlighted what the White House called the leaders' shared desire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz waterway off Iran, through which a fifth of
global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas travel in
normal times, and Xi's apparent interest in buying American oil to reduce China's dependence on Middle East supplies.

Trump told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity that China had agreed to order 200 Boeing jets, its first purchase of US-made
commercial jets in nearly a decade.

That total was much lower than markets were expecting. Media reports had suggested the planemaker was nearing a deal to sell 500 or more airplanes to China and Boeing shares fell more than 4% after the comments were aired.