- Xi calls visit a milestone.
- Trump claims Boeing deal.
- China calls for lasting ceasefire from Iran.
BEIJING: President Donald Trump said he had struck “fantastic trade deals” with China’s Xi Jinping as the pair met on Friday at the final talks of a superpower summit, which the US leader said has also garnered a Chinese offer to help open the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump had arrived in Beijing in an attempt to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as narrow differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas – not least the Middle East war.
Trump’s remarks to Xi, whom he described as a “great leader” and “friend”, have so far been met with more subdued tones by the Chinese leader.
But the American leader said that “a lot of good” has come out of the visit.
“We have made some great trade deals, good for both countries,” he said after a walk with Xi among the rose bushes in the garden of Zhongnanhai, a central executive compound next to Beijing’s Forbidden City.
“We’ve solved a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve,” he added, without elaborating.
Xi said it was a “milestone visit” and that the two sides had to date established “a new bilateral relationship which is one of constructive strategic stability”.
He promised to send Trump seeds to the White House Rose Garden.
‘Help on Hormuz’
In an interview with Fox News after the first day of the summit ended, Trump said Xi had agreed to several US wish list items.
On the subject of the war in Iran, the US president said Xi had effectively assured his counterpart that China was not preparing to militarily assist Tehran, which has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz.
“He said he wouldn’t give military equipment… he said that strongly,” Trump said Fox.
“He wanted to see the Strait of Hormuz open and said ‘if I can be of any help, I want to help,'” Trump added.
Asked whether the two leaders had discussed Iran, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a statement on Friday calling for “a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire”.
“Shipping routes should be reopened as soon as possible in response to calls from the international community,” it added.
Taiwan policy ‘unchanged’
The warm handshakes and pomp on Thursday were slightly overshadowed by a blunt warning from Xi on a much longer-standing geopolitical flashpoint, Taiwan.
Shortly after the talks started, Chinese state media reported that Xi had told Trump that missteps on the sensitive issue of Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.”
The Fox News the interview did not touch on Taiwan, and Trump did not comment to reporters when asked about the matter Thursday.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said CNBC the president would say more “in the coming days.”
Minister of State Marco Rubio said so NBC on Thursday, however, that “US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged… since the meeting”.
Beijing had raised the issue, he said, but “we always make our position clear and we move on to the other issues”.
Taipei responded on Friday, thanking Washington “for repeatedly expressing its support”.
Boeing, oil, soybeans
Trump on Friday did not specify the trade deals he said had been sealed with China.
But in Fox interview, Trump said a major business deal involved Xi agreeing to buy “200 big” Boeing jets.
Shares in the US aerospace giant fell after Trump’s comments, in a sign that the market had expected more robust buying from China.
The US president also said Beijing had expressed interest in buying US oil and soybeans.
China, the main foreign customer of Iranian oil, bought small amounts of US oil before Trump imposed tariffs last year.
It has sharply slowed purchases of US soybeans and turned instead to Brazil.
And Finance Minister Scott Bessent told that CNBC that Trump and Xi talked about setting up “safeguards” for the use of artificial intelligence.
Bessent said the world’s “two AI superpowers will start talking,” although U.S. export controls of the advanced technology to China remain a sore point in the relationship.
