Trump Heads to China as Trade Truce Faces Its Biggest Test Yet
AOL.com reported Tuesday that US President Donald Trump has arrived in China for a three-day visit with President Xi Jinping, the first trip to Beijing by an American president in nearly ten years.
The visit runs from 13 to 15 May and arrives at a delicate moment. A tit-for-tat tariff war that pushed levies past 100% on both sides has been on hold since Trump and Xi last met in South Korea in October. That truce, however, remains fragile.
High-Stakes Deals on the Agenda
Senior executives from major US corporations, including Boeing, Citigroup, and Qualcomm, are traveling with Trump, raising expectations of commercial agreements. The delegation signals Washington’s desire for business wins alongside any diplomatic progress made during the summit.
Trump has also repeated military warnings directed at Iran in the lead-up to the trip. Iran remains one of China’s largest oil suppliers, giving the issue direct relevance to talks with Xi.
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How the Trade War Escalated
The current standoff has roots stretching back nearly a decade. Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods during his first term in 2018, a move policy researcher Ning Leng of Georgetown University described as a genuine shock to Beijing.
The Biden administration kept those tariffs in place and added further restrictions, including curbs targeting Huawei and effectively barring Chinese electric vehicles from the US market. Economist Tang Heiwai of the University of Hong Kong noted that Biden’s approach was arguably more protectionist than Trump’s first term.
Trump returned to office in 2025 and escalated quickly. He layered additional tariffs onto Chinese goods, citing fentanyl trafficking, before his “Liberation Day” announcement set a 34% levy on Chinese imports. Combined with earlier duties, China faced some of the highest American tariff rates of any trading partner.
Beijing retaliated by restricting exports of rare earth minerals, a pressure point Washington had not fully anticipated. China controls a dominant share of global rare earth supply, materials critical to industries ranging from consumer electronics to defense manufacturing.
October Truce Bought Time, Not Resolution
The South Korea summit last October produced a temporary de-escalation. China suspended its rare earth export controls and agreed to resume purchases of American agricultural products. Trump called the outcome a victory.
But underlying tensions have not been resolved. Both sides have continued to issue warnings since October. The May visit will show whether that ceasefire can hold, or whether the world’s two largest economies are heading back toward open economic conflict.
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