Nearly a decade after the last US presidential visit to China, Trump and Xi meet at another pivotal moment

It will be the first visit by a US leader to China in almost a decade, bringing the two presidents back to the table at a time when trade, global conflicts and security issues remain high on the agenda.

The last time Trump and Xi met was in Busan, South Korea, in October 2025. That meeting came during an escalating tariffs dispute between both countries, but the talks helped pause tensions. Cameras captured the two leaders exchanging handshakes before sitting down for discussions.

This time around, trade will once again dominate discussions. The United States is expected to push for an extension of China’s suspension of export controls on rare earths, an agreement reached during the Busan talks. Possible deals involving planes, agriculture and energy are also expected to come up.

But the meeting is likely to go beyond economics. Discussions are predicted to touch on the Iran war, which Trump repeatedly insisted would be resolved before his visit, as well as nuclear weapons and Taiwan.

The upcoming talks also bring back memories of Trump and Xi’s earlier meetings during Trump’s first term. In 2017, Xi visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where Trump praised the relationship between the two countries.

Later that year in Beijing, both leaders again spoke positively about cooperation, despite concerns over trade imbalances.

The two leaders met again during the 2019 G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, where Xi said, “China and the United States both benefit from cooperation and lose in a confrontation.”

Trump responded by describing his earlier trip to Beijing as “one of the most incredible” experiences of his life and said a fair trade deal between the two countries “would be historic."

Now, years later, both leaders are preparing to meet once again — with trade, diplomacy and global security once again at the centre of the conversation.