President Donald Trump said he would urge China’s Xi Jinping to “open up” to U.S. business during his trip to a summit in Beijing on Wednesday. He also added Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to a group of executives travelling with him, following a stop in Alaska en route.
As Trump prepared for the pomp-filled occasion, his top trade negotiator Scott Bessent held talks with Chinese officials in South Korea aimed at maintaining a fragile trade deal between the world's top two economies struck last year.
The CEOs accompanying Trump are drawn mainly from companies seeking to resolve business issues with China, such as Nvidia, which has struggled to get regulatory permission to sell its powerful H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips there.
"I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to 'open up' China so that these brilliant people can work their magic," he said in post on Truth Social.
Trump asked Huang at the last minute to join the trip, said a source familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, and he had not figured on an initial list of travelling executives provided by the White House this week.
Huang was spotted boarding Air Force One during a refuelling halt in Alaska, with Trump due to arrive in Beijing late on Wednesday ahead of meetings with Xi that will include a banquet and a tour of UNESCO heritage site Temple of Heaven.
Apart from trade, the talks will cover a host of sensitive subjects from the Iran war to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China.
Trump is widely expected to encourage China to convince Tehran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict, though he has said he did not think he would need its help.
As Trump rubbed shoulders with Huang and Elon Musk aboard Air Force One, Bessent embarked on his latest round of trade negotiations with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at a reception room at South Korea's Incheon airport.
Both sides are eager to maintain a truce struck last October in which Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of rare earths.
They are also expected to agree to forums to support mutual trade and investment, while Washington is eager to sell Boeing airplanes, American agriculture and energy to China to reduce a trade deficit that has irked Trump, U.S. officials have said.
Beijing wants the U.S. to ease curbs on exports of chipmaking equipment and advanced semiconductors.
But Trump enters the talks with a significantly weakened hand say analysts. Courts have hemmed in his ability to levy tariffs on Chinese and other international exports at will.
Trump has vowed to build back those tariffs using remaining legal authorities.
Though the Chinese economy has faltered, Xi does not face comparable economic or political pressure.
"Given last year's trade war, keeping the status quo, rather than escalating, is already good news," said Liu Qian, founder and CEO of Wusawa Advisory, a geopolitical and business advisory firm, based in Beijing.
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Four people were killed, including a child, in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region. Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Russian military ships were destroyed in the attacks.
A TV channel was struck during a live broadcast on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian strikes on Kyiv killed at least three people, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Meanwhile, drones hit civilian infrastructure in Russia's southwestern Saratov region.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) allegedly launched two ballistic missile attacks against a U.S. Navy warship over the past two days.
Wildfires have broken out in Türkiye’s Antalya province, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate as strong winds fuelled the flames.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they attacked two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, calling the strikes a response to a U.S. attack on five Iranian tankers.
Oil has crossed the $100-a-barrel mark again, but for Gulf countries this is not simply good news. Brent reached about $100.07 on Wednesday, its highest level since July, as the U.S.-Iran war and attacks on Saudi energy facilities raised fresh fears about supplies.
Start your day informed with the AnewZ Daily Brief. Here are the top stories for the 10th of September, covering the latest developments about AI and technology.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to send every American adult a $5,000 payment if the Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in November's midterm elections.
At least five people have died and more than 80 others remain unaccounted for after a passenger ferry caught fire off the western Philippines, prompting a major search-and-rescue operation involving the coast guard, government agencies and local fishing communities.
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