{"id":6675,"date":"2026-05-15T12:35:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/trump-and-xi-move-towards-business-first-relationship-after-beijing-summit\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:35:41","slug":"trump-and-xi-move-towards-business-first-relationship-after-beijing-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/trump-and-xi-move-towards-business-first-relationship-after-beijing-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Xi move towards business-first relationship after Beijing summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Early signs point to the United States and China moving towards a relationship focused on pragmatic areas of common interest following US President Donald Trump\u2019s trip to China, according to analysts, setting aside the turmoil that marked 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Trump was in Beijing for three days this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, accompanied by a delegation of American CEOs, including the heads of Apple, Nvidia, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/interactive.aljazeera.com\/aje\/2026\/nakba-renamed-palestine\/?utm_source=aljazeera.com&#038;utm_medium=website&#038;utm_campaign=ucms\">Visiting Palestine\u2019s renamed places<\/a><span>This article will be opened in a new browser window<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/15\/scientists-identify-massive-new-dinosaur-following-thailand-dig\">Scientists identify massive new dinosaur following Thailand dig<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/centre-stage\/2026\/5\/15\/nadim-bawalsa-the-palestinian-diaspora-from-denial-to-genocide\">Nadim Bawalsa &#038; the Palestinian diaspora: From denial to genocide<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/15\/us-seeks-indictment-of-former-cuban-leader-raul-castro\">US seeks indictment of former Cuban leader Raul Castro<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The meeting between the two leaders came just over six months after they agreed to pause the US-China trade war for a year on the sidelines of a multilateral summit in South Korea. While a frequent critic of China\u2019s economic policies at home, Trump appeared to get along with Xi in person throughout his trip and lavished praise on the Chinese leader.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an honour to be with you, it\u2019s an honour to be your friend, and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before,\u201d Trump told Xi on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The White House readout of the Trump-Xi meeting on Thursday stressed areas of common ground, stating that the leaders had \u201cdiscussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between our two countries\u201d by \u201cexpanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment into our industries\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Notably absent from the statement was any mention of China\u2019s export controls on rare earths, critical materials used across the tech, defence and energy sectors. China controls nearly the entire industry, and it has moved to restrict US access.<\/p>\n<p>William Yang, senior Northeast Asia analyst at the Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Trump\u2019s remarks showed he would likely try to compartmentalise US-China relations into areas where the two sides can work together without being overshadowed by geopolitical concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Xi, while less effusive, also spoke of his desire to move towards a new US-China framework based on \u201cconstructive strategic stability\u201d, meaning that the US and China should try to \u201cminimise competition, manage differences and allow stability to be the foundation of the bilateral relationship\u201d, according to Yang.<\/p>\n<p>Both leaders appear to have sidestepped other controversial issues, such as the status of Taiwan, a 23 million-person democracy claimed by Beijing but unofficially backed by Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Xi told Trump during their meeting that Taiwan was the \u201cmost important issue\u201d in the US-China relationship, and that mishandling it could lead to \u201cclashes and even conflicts\u201d between the two sides. Beijing objects to Washington\u2019s ongoing military support of Taiwan and has pressed the US to take a more explicit line on Taiwan\u2019s political status.<\/p>\n<p>Although the US does not recognise the government in Taipei, it maintains a deliberately vague policy on China\u2019s territorial claims. Despite the controversy, neither the Chinese nor the US readout mentioned whether Trump discussed Taiwan or the future of arms sales \u2013 suggesting he either disagreed with Xi or avoided the topic.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts like Yang say it is still too soon to know whether Trump will heed Xi\u2019s remarks by blocking or delaying a $14bn arms deal reportedly in the works for Taiwan. The deal would need Trump\u2019s sign-off to move forward, according to US legislators.<\/p>\n<p>Xi was equally circumspect on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, which has been shuttered since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has previously pushed China to encourage Iran to reopen the strait, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas passed each year before the war, because of its close relationship with Tehran. China and Iran signed a 25-year \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d in 2021, and Beijing buys 80 to 90 percent of Iran\u2019s oil annually.<\/p>\n<p>Trump raised the points again in his meeting with Xi in Beijing, according to the US readout, which said the two leaders \u201cagreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresident Xi also made clear China\u2019s opposition to the militarisation of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China\u2019s dependence on the Strait in the future.\u00a0Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,\u201d the readout said.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese readout of their meeting on Thursday did not include mention of Iran or its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n<p>Chucheng Feng, founding partner of Hutong Research based in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that the omissions reflect that Xi and Trump still disagree on key issues, including Iran, but that the overall message from the summit was a desire to move forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Beijing, the most important thing is to find a floor for the relationship, to set up and enhance guardrails so that no surprises or uncontrolled escalations suddenly emerge. For that, item-by-item disagreements are largely secondary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early signs point to the United States and China moving towards a relationship focused on pragmatic areas of common interest following US President Donald Trump\u2019s trip to China, according to analysts, setting aside the turmoil that marked 2025. Trump was in Beijing for three days this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, accompanied &#8230; <a title=\"Trump and Xi move towards business-first relationship after Beijing summit\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/trump-and-xi-move-towards-business-first-relationship-after-beijing-summit\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump and Xi move towards business-first relationship after Beijing summit\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}