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US-China summit: managing a rivalry, not resolving it

Some of the most useful moves Trump and Xi can make are to lower the temperature and narrow the agenda

    • US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a bilateral meeting at the Apec summit in Busan on Oct 30, 2025.
    • US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a bilateral meeting at the Apec summit in Busan on Oct 30, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS
    Published Fri, May 8, 2026 · 07:00 AM

    WHEN US President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One in Beijing on May 14, he will become the first sitting American president to visit China since 2017.

    The optics will be dramatic: a state arrival, a reciprocal White House visit pencilled in for later this year, the spectacle of two leaders who ostentatiously brand themselves as dealmakers sizing each other up.

    The temptation to treat the next two days as either historic breakthrough or empty theatre will be strong. Both readings would be wrong.