President Donald Trump is heading to China to visit with President Xi Jinping and is bringing many top business executives along for the ride.
“We’re going to have a long talk about it,” Trump said of Xi and Iran before departing the White House. “He’s been a friend of mine. He’s been somebody that we get along with. And I think you’re going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip.”
Asked if he would be asking Xi for help in negotiating the end of the war, Trump said the U.S. doesn’t need any help and will win the war “peacefully or otherwise.”
The scheduled trip was pushed back due to the war in Iran with the hopes that a ceasefire deal and nuclear agreement would be reached by the time Trump was heading to Asia. It’s an important factor looming over the trip, as China is a key ally of Iran’s.
The pair met in South Korea last October as part of Trump’s five-day Asia trip, discussing trade, fentanyl, tariffs and the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Trump said he has a “great relationship” with Xi and the U.S. and China we’re doing “a lot of business.” He said the great relationship between the two countries is evident in their shared desire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for oil transport that Iran has effectively closed since early in the conflict.
In addition to the conflict in Iran, the tensions with Taiwan will also weigh on the meeting. The U.S. stance on Taiwan is that it acknowledges that China believes Taiwan is a part of its country but maintains a strong yet unofficial relationship with leaders in Taiwan. It’s an issue important to Utah Sen. John Curtis, who has led a congressional delegation to Taiwan and been named as one of several members of Congress on an arrest list in Hong Kong.
According to Kyle Chan, an expert on U.S.-China relations at the Brookings Institution, Trump and Xi are hoping to reaffirm their relationship and stability between the two countries. He told CNBC that the Chinese will be “super focused” to see if Trump has shifted any of his language regarding Taiwan.
The U.S. ambassador to China, David Perdue, said on Fox News that they were “fully expecting” that Taiwan will come up in conversation. Perdue said the U.S. will hear China out on Taiwan but he does not expect Trump to make any “major changes” in policy regarding Taiwan.
Joining the trip will be many top business executives in the country, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg. About 17 CEOs will travel with the U.S. delegation to Asia, where they are expected to participate in discussions about potentially creating a board of trade with China.
Notably, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will not be in attendance after Trump in October said he would not relax controls on the company exporting chips.
Trump will also be joined by his son Eric Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several top White House staff.