Xi tells Trump that mishandling of Taiwan could spark conflict

BEIJING, China – China’s Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump that trade talks were making progress at the start of a two-day summit on Thursday, May 14, but cautioned that disagreement over Taiwan could send relations down a dangerous path and even lead to conflict.

Xi’s remarks on Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by Beijing, came in a closed-door meeting of the leaders of the world’s two largest economies that ran more than two hours, China’s foreign ministry said.

They represented a stark — if not unprecedented — warning during a pomp-filled occasion that otherwise appeared friendly and relaxed, although the US summary of the talks made no mention of Taiwan.

Instead, it focused on the leaders’ shared desire to reopen the key waterway of the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed due to the Iran war, and Xi’s apparent interest in buying American oil to reduce China’s dependence on Middle East supplies.

With Trump’s approval ratings dented by a war with Iran that shows no signs of abating, the first visit by a US president to China in nearly a decade has taken on added significance as he searches for economic wins.

“There are those who say this may be the biggest summit ever,” Trump told Xi in brief opening remarks, after a ceremony that featured an honor guard and throngs of children waving flowers and flags at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

Xi told Trump that negotiations between US and Chinese economic and trade teams in South Korea on Wednesday, May 13, had reached “overall balanced and positive outcomes,” China’s foreign ministry said in a summary.

The talks had aimed to maintain a fragile trade truce struck last October and establish mechanisms to support future trade and investment, officials with knowledge of the matter said.

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This week, Trump said he expected Xi to raise the thorny issue of US arms sales to Taiwan. With the status of a $14-billion package awaiting Trump’s approval still unclear, China reiterated its strong opposition to the sales on Wednesday.

The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties.

The Chinese leader told Trump that Taiwan was the most important issue they faced and if handled poorly could push the entire US-China relationship into an extremely dangerous situation and cause the countries to collide or even enter conflict, according to Beijing’s summary of the talks.

Xi’s remarks were noteworthy, even though Beijing had issued strong warnings on Taiwan in the past, said Joe Mazur, geopolitics analyst at consultancy Trivium China.

“He’s warning the US side in no uncertain terms not to screw around,” Mazur added.

Trump did not respond to a reporter’s shouted question whether the leaders had discussed Taiwan as he posed with Xi later for photos at the Temple of Heaven, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where emperors once prayed for good harvests.

They are set to attend a lavish state banquet before taking tea and lunch together on Friday, May 15.

Trump and Xi agreed to expand cooperation in trade and agriculture and exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East, Ukraine, and the Korean peninsula, China’s summary showed.

They also discussed expanding market access in China for American businesses and increasing Chinese investment into US industries, according to the White House.

Joining Trump on his visit are a group of CEOs looking to resolve issues with China, from Elon Musk, viewed in China as a visionary and occasional villain to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a late addition to the delegation.

The United States has cleared around 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s powerful H200 AI chip, but not a single delivery has been made so far, Reuters exclusively reported.

Trump’s weakened hand

The power dynamics have changed since Trump’s last visit to Beijing in 2017, when China went out of its way to woo the president and buy billions in US goods, said Ali Wyne, senior adviser for US-China relations at International Crisis Group.

Trump is now acknowledging China’s growing status, for example, by reviving the term “G2,” referring to a superpower duo, when he last met Xi on the sidelines of an APEC meeting in South Korea in October, Wyne said.

Trump enters the talks with a weakened hand, however.

US courts have hemmed in his ability to levy tariffs at will on exports from China and other countries.

The Iran war has also boosted inflation at home and escalated the risk that Trump’s Republican Party will lose control of one or both legislative branches in November’s midterm elections.

Though the Chinese economy has faltered, Xi does not face comparable economic or political pressure.

Nevertheless, both sides are eager to maintain last October’s trade truce in which Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods, and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths.

Washington looks to sell Boeing aircraft, farm goods, and energy to China to cut a trade deficit that has long irked Trump, while Beijing wants US curbs eased on exports of chipmaking equipment and advanced semiconductors, officials involved in the planning said.

Aside from trade matters, Trump is expected to encourage China to convince Iran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict, as a fifth of global supplies of oil and natural gas travel through the Strait of Hormuz in normal times.

But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the United States.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News aboard Air Force One that it was in China’s interest to help resolve the crisis as many of its ships are stuck in the Gulf, and a slowdown in the global economy would hurt Chinese exporters.

Xi has a reciprocal visit tentatively planned for later this year, his first since Trump began his second term in 2025. – Rappler.com