BEIJING: US President Donald Trump said he had made “fantastic trade deals” with China’s Xi Jinping, as the pair met on Friday at final talks of a superpower summit that, according to the US leader, has also reaped a Chinese offer to help open the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas — not least the Middle East war.
“We’ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,” he said after a walk with Xi among the rosebushes in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing’s Forbidden City.
“We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” he added, without providing details.
Xi said it was a “milestone visit”, and that the two sides had to date established “a new bilateral relationship, which is a relationship of constructive strategic stability”. He promised to send Trump seeds for the White House Rose Garden.
.@POTUS meets with President Xi in Zhongnanhai: “I want to thank you very much. This has been an incredible visit. I think a lot of good has come of it. We’ve made some fantastic trade deals—great for both countries… we’ve really done some wonderful things, I believe.” pic.twitter.com/7kLQjADQOi
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 15, 2026
Xi greeted Trump with a handshake at the gardens of the Zhongnanhai, the central leadership compound next to the Chinese capital’s Forbidden City.
Trump had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas — not least the Middle East war.
.@POTUS: “Nice place. I like this place. I could get used to this.” 🤣 https://t.co/o5zEai6JQY pic.twitter.com/5ams4A1sA6
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 15, 2026
Trump’s overtures to Xi, whom he described as a “great leader” and “friend”, have so far been met with more muted tones by the Chinese leader, reports AFP.
The 79-year-old Trump did discuss the war against Iran, telling Fox News in an interview that Xi effectively assured his counterpart that China was not preparing to militarily aid Tehran.
“He said he’s not going to give military equipment… he said that strongly”, Trump told Fox after the leaders met, adding that Xi would “like to see the Hormuz Strait open” for maritime transport of oil and other critical products.
Trump also responded to a comment by Xi referring to the “Thucydides Trap,” a political theory that war becomes more likely when a rising new power competes with an established great power.
Xi, however, said the United States and China could “transcend” this danger.
In a social media post in the early hours of Friday, Trump said Xi “very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation.”
“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden… But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world” -… pic.twitter.com/Kjr5Rdaz0D
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 14, 2026
Trump said Xi was not referring to the United States under his watch, which he claimed was experiencing an “incredible rise,” but rather the country under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
“Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline,” Trump posted on his Truth Social site. “Now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”
He said that Xi “congratulated me on so many tremendous successes.”
Trump, in his Fox appearance, appeared to announce one of the big business deals by saying China had agreed to purchase “200 big” Boeing jets.
Shares of the US aviation giant fell after Trump’s comments, in a sign the market had expected a more robust purchase from China.
Trump and Xi were discussing setting up “guardrails” for the use of artificial intelligence, Bessent told CNBC.
WATCH: 🇺🇸🇨🇳 White House Shares Cinematic Footage of President Trump’s Visit to China.pic.twitter.com/5kFxgNHTOT
— Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial (@TruthTrumpPost) May 14, 2026
Bessent said the world’s “two AI superpowers are going to start talking”, though US export controls on the advanced technology to China remain a sore point in relations.
The two sides are embroiled in many outstanding disputes and areas of contention, not least the US-Israeli war in the Middle East, which has seen Tehran close the vital Strait of Hormuz, hitting Chinese and global oil supplies.
In its brief readout, the White House said the leaders had “agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy”, an issue which analysts have said could weaken Trump’s position, having already forced him to postpone this trip, originally planned for late March.
Trump’s visit to Beijing is the first by an American president in nearly a decade.
