{"id":106605,"date":"2026-05-10T12:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/106605\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:36:09","slug":"iran-war-could-make-donald-trumps-trip-to-china-a-bit-chillier-than-his-first-term-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/106605\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran war could make Donald Trump\u2019s trip to China a bit chillier than his first-term visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weeks before his\u00a0trip to China<\/a>, President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0was already predicting on social media that his Chinese counterpart,\u00a0Xi Jinping<\/a>, would \u201cgive me a big, fat hug when I get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Beijing\u2019s deep\u00a0economic ties to Iran<\/a>, as well as\u00a0trade tensions<\/a>\u00a0over\u00a0tariff threats<\/a>\u00a0stretching back to Trump\u2019s first term, could crimp the good feelings when Trump flies to Beijing this week \u2014 even though the Republican president has for years effusively praised Xi, making it clear he sees China\u2019s leader as a competitor strong enough to warrant his respect and admiration.<\/p>\n

Trump isn\u2019t fond of long plane rides or extended stretches away from the White House or his properties in Florida and New Jersey. He is expected to only spend parts of three days on the ground in China.<\/p>\n

There will be plenty of pomp, but the grandeur is not expected to rival Trump\u2019s first visit to China in 2017, which Beijing dubbed a \u201cstate visit-plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven before this whole conflagration with Iran, they weren\u2019t going to go state visit-plus like last time, just because things are tense,\u201d said Jonathan Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Trump\u2019s first-term trip, China rolled out the red carpet for his arrival, with a band playing military music and children waving flags and chanting \u201cWelcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xi offered a tour of the Forbidden City. Trump and first lady\u00a0Melania Trump<\/a>\u00a0even had a private dinner there. Trump was the first foreign leader since the People\u2019s Republic of China was founded in 1949 to experience what was once reserved for emperors.<\/p>\n

The following morning brought\u00a0another welcome ceremony<\/a>\u00a0at the Great Hall of the People and featured a military parade. There also was a state banquet in Trump\u2019s honor with video highlights from the Chinese leader\u2019s previous visit to Florida and a clip of Trump\u2019s granddaughter Arabella singing in Chinese.<\/p>\n

Beijing does not offer this level of spectacle to most visiting foreign leaders. When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the Forbidden City in January, Xi did not attend and the site remained open to the public. Starmer had to contend with tourists.<\/p>\n

Ali Wyne, senior U.S.-China research and advocacy adviser for the Washington nonprofit the Crisis Group, said the \u201cChinese delegation will likely do its utmost to ensure that Trump leaves Beijing believing that he has just concluded the most extraordinary state visit of his two presidencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But, he said, the \u201cpomp and circumstance would serve a different role now than they did when he first visited Beijing\u201d because \u201cXi has a much better understanding of Trump, and the administration\u2019s own national security strategy and national defense strategy recognize China as a near-peer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expectations for what gets accomplished could be lower this time, said Czin, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. He predicted that the Chinese may not offer major breakthroughs on trade or anything else because they are \u201cworking backward from our midterm elections\u201d with the theory that the closer they get to Election Day \u201cthe more leverage they are going to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GOP is focused on retaining control of Congress, even as\u00a0polling shows most Americans are unhappy<\/a>\u00a0with Trump\u2019s economic policies and believe that the United States went\u00a0too far in Iran<\/a>. Still, the White House argues that Trump\u2019s previous firm hand with Beijing on tariffs \u2014 which the\u00a0Supreme Court subsequently struck down<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 means the U.S. will remain in a strong position.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump cares about results, not symbols,\u201d White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said. \u201cBut even still, the president has a great relationship with President Xi, and the upcoming summit in Beijing will be both symbolically and substantively significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump could meet with China\u2019s leader four times in eight months.<\/p>\n

After his visit to Beijing, Trump plans to host Xi at the White House. Trump might also attend the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Shenzhen, China. And Xi could come to the\u00a0Group of 20<\/a>\u00a0summit the following month at Trump\u2019s resort in Doral, Florida.<\/p>\n

Czin noted that Xi also is not very fond of travel, meaning not all of the planned encounters may happen. He said China\u2019s leader also does not \u201cdo personal connections\u201d like the kind Trump relishes, noting Xi led a Chinese\u00a0military purge<\/a>\u00a0in January that included replacing officials with long-standing personal ties to his family.<\/p>\n

Wyne, though, said Xi also \u201cappreciates that he is unlikely to deal with another U.S. president who admires him as greatly and embraces as narrow a view of strategic competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means Xi may \u201cattempt to pocket as many economic and security concessions from Trump as possible,\u201d Wyne said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Published with permission of The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weeks before his\u00a0trip to China, President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0was already predicting on social media that his Chinese counterpart,\u00a0Xi Jinping, would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3870,262,38,36832,34,36829,688,4731,36833,24349,36834,1537,986],"class_list":{"0":"post-106605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-anna-kelly","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-group-of-20","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-jonathan-czin","14":"tag-keir-starmer","15":"tag-melania-trump","16":"tag-tariff-threats","17":"tag-trade-tensions","18":"tag-welcome-ceremony","19":"tag-white-house","20":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116550315881100512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}