Xi Jinping heads to Washington for second Trump summit amid trade, AI and Taiwan tensions

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday left for Washington to hold a rare second summit with his US counterpart Donald Trump in less than six months to discuss a broad range of bilateral and international issuesXi is accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan Cai Qi a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the General Office of the Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee the foreign ministry saidTrump had invited Xi and Peng to visit the White House during his visit to China in May this yearThey are expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington on Wednesday where Trump planned to accord a rare airport reception by personally receiving them on the tarmac according to media reportsThe Chinese Foreign Ministry has described their second meeting within six months as a milestone of historic significanceTrade tariffs technology AI military ties conflicts in the Middle East the RussiaUkraine war the arms race in space and US arms sales to Taiwan were expected to figure in talks between Xi and TrumpAhead of Xis visit Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and American Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held wideranging talks on economic and trade issues including on AIIn his talks with He in New York on Sunday Bessent said the US has proposed a new notification mechanism for artificial intelligence AI incidents that could affect national securityXiTrump talks assume significance in the immediate backdrop of Trump signing the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 which authorises him to impose steep tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top five importers of crude oil and gas from Moscow including China and IndiaTrump also unveiled a new AI Force in a potential escalation of the highstakes technology race between the rival powersLast week the US confirmed the deployment of a space weapon in Earths orbit the first time it has acknowledged such offensive capabilitiesChina has rejected US attempts to impose tariffs over its purchases of Russian oil and gas saying normal trade cooperation between countries should not be subject to interference by third partiesChina opposes longarm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and lack a UN Security Council mandate Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun saidDespite the tariff threat Washington and Beijing are also negotiating a reciprocal tariff reduction framework covering products worth USD 30 billion from each side Chinas Commerce Ministry saidThe consultations aim to reach a reciprocal tariff reduction arrangement at the earliest possible date the ministrys spokesperson Huang Ling saidAhead of the summit Chinese Foreign Minister Wang and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also held a telephone conversation focusing on highlevel exchanges between the two countries The IranUS war was expected to figure in the XiTrump talks as the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing last week and held talks with Wang during which he said Tehran is not interested in continuing the conflict with the US and looks forward to returning to a diplomatic solution including the implementation of the USIran Memorandum of Understanding reached earlierTrump is also urging Xi to prevail on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine as BeijingMoscow share close tiesFor his part Xi was expected to press Trump to not to go ahead with the USD 11 billion arms sales to Taiwan the biggest US military package to TaipeiThe deal includes HIMARS rocket systems antitank missiles antiarmour missiles loitering suicide drones howitzers military software and parts for other equipmentChina which claims Taiwan as part of it said it firmly opposes and strongly condemns the US arms sales packageThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever