Trump leaves China with few wins but warm words for Xi
- By Reuters -
- May 15, 2026
BEIJING: U.S. President Donald Trump left China on Friday with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from Beijing to end his Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Xi Jinping.
Trump’s visit to America’s main strategic and economic rival, the first by a U.S. president since his last trip in 2017, had aimed for tangible results to beef up his sagging approval ratings ahead of crucial midterm elections.
The summit was filled with pageantry, from goose-stepping soldiers to tours of a secret garden, but behind closed doors Xi issued a stark warning to Trump that any mishandling of China’s top concern Taiwan could spiral into conflict.
Trump declined to comment on the matter, staying unusually restrained throughout the visit, with his off-the-cuff remarks mainly focused on feting Xi’s warmth and stature.
“It’s been an incredible visit. I think a lot of good has come of it,” Trump told Xi at their final meeting at the Zhongnanhai complex, a former imperial garden housing the offices of Chinese leaders, before their lunch of lobster balls and Kung Pao scallops.
While Trump searched for immediate business wins such as a deal to sell Boeing jets that did not impress investors, Xi talked up a long-term reset and pact to maintain stable trade ties with Washington, underscoring their differing priorities.
NO TANGIBLE HELP ON IRAN
Just before the leaders met for tea on Friday, China’s foreign ministry issued a blunt statement outlining its frustration with the United States and Israel’s war with Iran.
“This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to continue,” the ministry said, adding that China supported efforts to reach a peace deal in a war that had disrupted energy supplies and the global economy.
At Zhongnanhai, Trump said the leaders had discussed Iran and felt “very similar”, though Xi did not comment.
Trump had been expected to urge China to use its leverage with Iran to make a deal. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the US.
A brief U.S. summary of Thursday’s talks highlighted what the White House called the leaders’ shared desire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz off Iran, through which a fifth of global oil and gas once flowed, and Xi’s apparent interest in American oil purchases to pare its dependence on the Middle East.
“What’s notable is that there’s no Chinese commitment to do anything specific with regards to Iran,” said Patricia Kim, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution.
BOEING SHARES SLIDE ON UNDERWHELMING DEAL
U.S. officials said they had also agreed deals to sell farm goods and made progress on setting up mechanisms to manage future trade, with both sides expected to identify $30 billion of non-sensitive goods.
There were scant details of the deals, however, and no signs of a breakthrough on selling Nvidia’s advanced H200 AI chips to China, despite CEO Jensen Huang’s dramatic last-minute addition to the trip.
Trump told Fox News that China had agreed to order 200 Boeing jets, its first purchase of U.S.-made commercial jets in nearly a decade, but that was far short of the roughly 500 expected by markets, and Boeing shares fell more than 4%.
Chinese stocks slid as investors realised the summit had produced little.
Trump also left without official resolution to the rare earths supply problem that has dogged ties since China imposed export controls on the vital minerals in response to Trump’s tariff barrage in April 2025. In two days of summit coverage, Chinese state media did not mention the issue once.
While the leaders struck a truce last October for Washington to lower tariffs in exchange for China keeping rare earths flowing, Beijing’s controls have caused shortages for U.S. chipmakers and aerospace companies.
It has not even been decided whether to extend the truce beyond its expiry later this year, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, accompanying Trump, told Bloomberg TV on Friday.
Such an extension would be “the most basic benchmark” for the success of the summit, said the Brookings’ Kim.
STARK WARNING ON TAIWAN
Xi’s remarks to Trump that mishandling Taiwan, the democratically governed island Beijing claims, could lead to conflict, delivered a sharp, if not unprecedented, warning during a summit that otherwise appeared friendly and relaxed.
Taiwan, just 50 miles (80 km) off China’s coast, has long been a flashpoint in ties, with Beijing refusing to rule out use of military force to gain control of the island and the U.S. bound by law to provide it the means of self-defence.
“U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also traveling with Trump, told NBC News. Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung thanked the United States on Friday for expressing its support.
Rubio said Trump had brought up with Xi the issue of Hong Kong’s most vocal China critic, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, jailed for 20 years in February in the Asian financial hub’s biggest national security case, which Beijing calls an internal matter.
Despite the lack of major breakthroughs, both sides celebrated a steadier footing in a relationship Xi called the most important in the world.
“We must make it work and never mess it up,” he said at Thursday’s state banquet.