Summary:
A planned summit between President Trump and China's Xi Jinping is approaching amid significant uncertainty, as Chinese officials express frustration over a lack of clarity regarding Trump’s agenda and potential deals. American business leaders also remain unsure whether they will be invited to join the U.S. delegation, contrasting with the typical practice of including executives on such visits. The uncertainty reflects Trump’s unpredictable negotiating style, which clashes with China’s preference for meticulously planned diplomacy.
Main Topics Covered:
1. Uncertainty surrounding the agenda and planning for the upcoming Trump-Xi summit.
2. Frustration from Chinese officials over a lack of details from the U.S.
3. The absence of invitations for American business leaders to accompany Trump.
4. Contrast between Trump’s unpredictable diplomacy and China’s scripted approach.
5. Broader U.S.-China trade tensions and efforts to stabilize the relationship.
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A Trump-Xi Summit Nears, but China Doesn’t Know What Trump Wants
Trump’s agenda for the high-stakes meeting remains unclear to Beijing, Chinese analysts say, while American executives say they haven’t been invited along.
A summit between President Trump and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping that could extend their countries’ trade truce is less than three weeks away, yet a cloud of uncertainty hangs over it.
Chinese officials are frustrated by a lack of details from the White House about Mr. Trump’s agenda and what deals the two sides could agree on, Chinese analysts say. American business leaders, for their part, don’t know if they are being invited to join the U.S. president.
To some extent, that may be just what dealing with Mr. Trump looks like. He prizes being unpredictable and has said he thinks keeping the other side off balance is the secret to winning. The Chinese government, on the other hand, likes to script every detail of meetings with Mr. Xi well in advance.
“Usually, planning for this kind of visit would start months ahead. But this time, it started very late and it’s still very much in progress,” said Wu Xinbo, the dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, who last year was among a group of Chinese scholars attending unofficial talks in the United States.
“We still don’t know what this visit will achieve,” he said.
That includes what commercial deals may be announced during the visit and what else Mr. Trump wants to do, Mr. Wu said. Some of these questions might be ironed out when Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary, and Vice Premier He Lifeng of China meet in Paris later this week.
Concerns about the summit, which the White House says will be from March 31 to April 2, are also being aired in the United States. On Tuesday, the president of the U.S.-China Business Council, Sean Stein, said that the White House had yet to invite any business leaders to travel with him.
World leaders are often accompanied by chief executives on visits to China, in a reflection of the importance of the Chinese economy. Last month, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany traveled to Beijing with roughly 30 executives; in January, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain took nearly 60 businesspeople. Mr. Trump himself brought executives with him in 2017 during his first presidential term.
“It’s hard to imagine the president is not going to want to have a robust delegation,” Mr. Stein said. “But so far, again, invitations haven’t gone out.”
Mr. Stein said his understanding was that the Trump administration had not yet made a decision about whether chief executives should accompany the president.
A White House spokesman said that the administration intended to extend invitations when appropriate. It was normal for the United States not to have extended invitations yet, he said. On the goals for the summit, the spokesman said that neither side had yet revealed specifics.
The U.S.-China relationship has largely been focused on maintaining stability, after a trade clash last year sent the relationship into a free fall. Mr. Trump’s steep global tariffs prompted the Chinese to cut off purchases of U.S. soybeans and clamp down on exports of rare earth minerals needed by American factories.
Mr. Trump met Mr. Xi in South Korea in October, when they agreed on a yearlong trade truce. American officials have since said that the two leaders are expected to meet as many as four times this year.
U.S. business leaders have been pressing for a more ambitious agenda that would try to open Chinese markets and remove impediments to businesses seeking to operate there. That includes obtaining approvals for U.S. crops grown with genetically modified seeds, U.S. pharmaceutical exports, and pending licenses for financial services companies.
China has yet to confirm the dates of the summit, but that is in line with its standard practice. Still, the country’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, struck a positive note at a news briefing last week.
“This year is a big year for China-U.S. relations,” Mr. Wang said. “The agenda of high-level exchanges is already on the table.”
The comments suggested plans had not been derailed by the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran, one of China’s strategic partners.
Mr. Wang hinted, though, that the Trump administration should not do anything to antagonize China that could jeopardize the meeting, saying both sides should “manage the risks that do exist and remove unnecessary disruptions.” Mr. Trump has already delayed announcing a package of arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by Beijing, to avoid upsetting Mr. Xi ahead of the summit.
Mr. Wu of Fudan University said he doubted that China would lavish Mr. Trump with as much pomp and circumstance as they had on his first trip, when Mr. Xi took him on a personal tour of the Forbidden City. Just months after that, Mr. Trump launched his first trade war with China.
“I’m not sure China is going to provide this kind of treatment for him again,” Mr. Wu said. “No matter how well you treat him, you cannot prevent him from changing his mind.”
Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.
David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.
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