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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Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 12 July, covering the latest developments you need to know.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent allies in Congress, has died following a brief and sudden illness. He was 71-years-old.
The 4th Shusha Global Media Forum will bring together nearly 160 media leaders, experts and officials from 54 countries in Azerbaijan's historic city of Shusha on 13-14 July, to discuss journalism’s role in peacebuilding, restoring public trust and tackling challenges.
The U.S. has launched fresh strikes on Iran after Tehran targeted a container ship and said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz. Iran also claimed to have expanded attacks on U.S. military facilities across the Gulf.
Typhoon Bavi, the strongest storm to hit the eastern coast of mainland China this year, brought heavy rain, strong winds, flooding and landslides after making landfall in Zhejiang province on Sunday. More than 2.8 million people were evacuated to safety ahead of the storm.
President Ilham Aliyev is holding his annual question-and-answer session with international journalists at the 4th Shusha Global Media Forum in Azerbaijan.
Qatar is mourning the death of its former ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who has passed away at the age of 74.
Britain has moved to target Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and another Iran-linked organisation using new state-threat powers following a series of antisemitic incidents across the country.
The UK has announced a fresh round of sanctions against individuals and organisations it says are responsible for cyber attacks and hybrid operations linked to Russian intelligence, in a move aimed at countering efforts to destabilise Europe.
A 93-year-old British woman has died after being injured in wildfires that swept through southeastern Spain's Almeria province, regional authorities said, bringing the confirmed death toll to 13 people.
More than 10,000 excess deaths were recorded across 27 European countries during a record-breaking heatwave in late June, with older people accounting for the vast majority of the toll, according to official mortality data.
An overnight fire at a popular bar in Bangkok has killed at least 27 people and injured 63 others, making it one of the deadliest pub disasters in the Thai capital in recent years. Authorities say the venue quickly filled with thick smoke, trapping patrons inside.
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