The president Donald Trump is in China for his meeting with President Xi Jinpingin the midst of trade tensions and the global geopolitical reorganization pushed by the US.
As President Trump’s administration seeks to stem China’s commercial advance in regions such as Latin America, his trip to that nation will focus on further reopening for American companies.
“I will ask President Xi, a leader of extraordinary distinction, to open China so these brilliant people can deploy their talents and help raise the level of the Accepted Republic even further,” Trump wrote in a post on Social Reality before leaving. “In fact, I promise you that when we meet, which will happen in a matter of hours, this will be my first request. “I have never seen or heard of an idea more beneficial for our incredible countries!”
President Trump travels to China accompanied by a group of technology and financial leadersincluding Tesla CEO Elon Musk; Apple CEO Tim Cook; and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The Jinping administration claimed to be open to US proposals to “expand cooperation,” as reported by Reuters about Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
President Trump arrives in China with several conflicts on him: the war with Iran – and China being one of the countries that most depend on the crossing of energy from the Strait of Hormuz –, the trade war that the Republican resumed in his second term with tariffs of up to 145% on some products.
The Taiwan issue will be one of the most complex, after The US suspends an arms package worth almost $14 billion to that territory, which unleashed the annoyance of the Jinping government.
Trump announced this week that “whether he liked it or not,” the Taiwan issue would be one of those he would address with Jinping.
It is in doubt whether the issue of Iran will be officially addressed by the leaders, but before his departure, Trump stated that the US “does not need any help with Iran”, this despite the fact that it has not reached an agreement with the Iranians and there are problems with crossings in the Strait of Hormuz, with an attempt by Iran to maintain a quota for the transit of vessels that transport oil and other energy sources, as well as fertilizers.
Limited agreements between the US and China
The commercial approach of Trump-Jinping meeting could lead to limited dealsaccording to a report from the Council on International Family members (CFR).
“The most likely thing is that a set of carefully orchestrated, but limited, agreements will be concluded: an extension of the trade truce, a modest easing of tensions regarding export shielding, the resumption of shipments of rare earths and Chinese purchases of American products with great media impact,” the CFR analysis states.
The Taiwan issue will be a key element, but the US could offer some limited concessions to competition as long as China manages to keep much of its trade strategy intact.
“Significant progress on the structural problems driving the relationship: China’s industrial subsidies, excess manufacturing capacity, and the widespread imbalance between production and consumption in the Chinese economy is much less likely,” the CFR indicates.
Formal meetings between both leaders and their high-level teams will be on May 14 and 15.
Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is part of President Trump’s team and days before he acknowledged at a conference that Taiwan will be a topic of conversation.
“I think both countries understand that it is not in our best interest for anything destabilizing to happen in that part of the world,” Rubio said. “We do not need destabilizing events to occur in Taiwan or anywhere else in the Indo-Pacific.”
Criticism of Democratic leadership
The Democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer (New York), said that President Trump will seek to benefit from China, without this meaning benefits for the US.
“Donald Trump may not be interested in helping the American people progress, but he certainly seems willing to favor China. We should all fear what Donald Trump might concede to China just to grab headlines,” Schumer said. “Trump has fantasized about a trillion dollars in Chinese investments in the United States that would give China an absolute shield over our economy, threaten our supply chains, our economic independence and our national security.”
Schumer said Trump should push for Taiwan arms deal to happenin addition to the urgency of preventing any action by China against that territory, due to its global economic impact.
“Any threat that Trump allows Xi Jinping to launch against the Taiwanese represents a threat to global democracy, and also to the global economy, given the high number of semiconductor chips that are manufactured in Taiwan,” Schumer said.
