BEIJING/SEOUL — President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, accompanied by senior executives including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as both sides seek to stabilize strained economic ties and preserve a fragile trade truce.
Trump was greeted with a formal welcome ceremony that included a military honor guard and crowds of Chinese students waving both U.S. and Chinese flags as he stepped off Air Force One in the late evening. He paused briefly on the red carpet as the students chanted a welcome in Mandarin before departing in his motorcade.
The visit marks the first by a sitting U.S. president to China in nearly a decade and comes as Trump seeks to secure economic concessions, including expanded market access for American companies. In a social media post, he said he intended to urge Xi to “open up” China to U.S. business, calling it his top priority.
“I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic,” Trump wrote, referring to the business leaders in his delegation.
The corporate contingent accompanying Trump includes executives from firms with significant stakes in China’s regulatory environment, particularly in the technology sector. Nvidia, for example, has faced hurdles in obtaining approval to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips in the Chinese market.
According to a source familiar with the trip, Huang was invited at short notice to join the delegation and was seen boarding Air Force One during a refueling stop in Alaska.
China’s foreign ministry responded cautiously to Trump’s remarks, with spokesperson Guo Jiakun saying Beijing is prepared to expand cooperation, manage differences and promote stability in global economic relations.
Preparatory discussions between U.S. and Chinese officials had already taken place in South Korea, where U.S. Treasury officials met Chinese counterparts for several hours of trade talks described as candid and constructive by Chinese state media.
The two sides are working to maintain an October truce in which Washington suspended steep tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing eased restrictions on rare earth exports, materials critical to global manufacturing sectors including electric vehicles and defense systems.
During the Beijing visit, Trump is expected to attend a state reception at the Great Hall of the People, tour cultural landmarks and participate in a formal state banquet. Discussions are also expected to cover sensitive geopolitical issues, including the Iran conflict and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
China reiterated its opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its territory, while Washington continues to provide defensive support under longstanding policy obligations.
Despite diplomatic pageantry, analysts say the negotiations reflect uneven leverage. Trump faces domestic political and economic pressure linked to inflation and trade tensions, while China’s leadership enters the talks with relatively fewer immediate constraints.
“The Trump administration needs this meeting more than China does, as it needs to show to American voters that deals are signed, money is made,” said Liu Qian, a Beijing-based geopolitical analyst.
Public reaction in Beijing was mixed, with some residents expressing cautious optimism about potential policy outcomes while others voiced skepticism about the durability of any agreement reached during the visit.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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