Trade, Taiwan and Tehran cast shadows as Trump lands in Beijing

U.S. President Donald Trump has arrived in Beijing for his highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as the world’s two biggest economies look to stabilize a trade truce against the backdrop of the simmering U.S. conflict with Iran. The meeting also comes at a restless moment as concerns over war, trade and artificial intelligence span the globe.

The visit occurs at a delicate moment for Trump’s presidency, as his popularity at home has been weighed down by the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran and the rising inflation as a consequence of that conflict. The president is seeking a win by signing deals with China to buy more American food and aircraft, saying he’ll be talking with Xi about trade “more than anything else.”

Trump’s visit, the first by a U.S. president since his own trip nine years ago, will be “a wild one,” he promised this year, recounting at an event in Washington that he had told Xi “to put on the biggest display you’ve ever had in the history of China.”

Trade will be at the forefront of discussions, and Trump is bringing more than a dozen chief executives with him to Beijing, including SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

The goal this week will be to return to Washington with positive economic headlines and a reinforced personal relationship that both governments regard as the most consequential bilateral tie in the world. The possibility of extending the trade truce reached between Washington and Beijing last fall is on the agenda, as well.

Before he left Washington on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that he expected to have “a long talk” with Xi about the Iran war but that it was not an agenda item. The talks, “more than anything else,” he said, would be about trade.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other,” he said.