WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 China, the adversary. China, the friend? These days, maybe a bit of both. <\/p>\n
From easing export controls to reportedly blocking the Taiwanese president\u2019s plans to travel through the United States, President Donald Trump<\/a> is raising eyebrows in Washington that he might offer concessions that could hurt U.S. interests in his quest to meet, and reach a deal with, the Chinese leader.<\/p>\n There is no firm plan for Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a>. But it\u2019s widely believed that the men must meet in person, likely in the fall, for the two governments to ink a trade deal, and some are worried that Xi is leveraging Trump\u2019s desire for more giveaways.<\/p>\n \u201cThe summit mismatch is real. There\u2019s a clear gap between Trump\u2019s eagerness for a face-to-face with Xi and Beijing\u2019s reluctance to engage,\u201d said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.<\/p>\n There are concerns that Trump may throttle back on export controls or investment curbs to preserve summit prospects, Singleton said, warning the risk \u201cisn\u2019t just in giving away too much\u201d but also \u201cin letting Beijing set the tempo.\u201d<\/p>\n China-U.S. relations have pinballed often since Washington established relations with communist-led Beijing in 1979. They\u2019ve hit highs and lows \u2014 the latter in the aftermath of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square<\/a>, after a 2001 incident involving a U.S. spy plane, during the COVID pandemic and right now. Both countries have struggled to understand each other, which has sometimes gotten in the way of deeper partnerships. <\/p>\n And this time around, there\u2019s a wild card: the anything-might-happen second presidency of Trump. <\/p>\n Disputes often accompany potential US-China leader meetings<\/p>\n Efforts by a U.S. president to meet the head of the authoritarian Chinese government have often met with partisan outcries \u2014 which happened when former President Joe Biden hosted Xi in California in 2023<\/a>. But Trump\u2019s case is peculiar, partly because he is willing to break with conventional political restraints to make deals and partly because his own party has grown hawkish towards China over national security.<\/p>\n \u201cWith President Trump, everything seems to be open for negotiation, and there are few if any red lines,\u201d said Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the global consultancy Teneo. \u201cThe hawks worry that if Trump gets into a room with Xi, he will agree to extraordinary concessions, especially if he believes that a big, beautiful deal is within reach.\u201d<\/p>\n While most Republican lawmakers have not voiced their concerns openly, Democrats are vocal in their opposition. \u201cPresident Trump is giving away the farm to Xi just so he can save face and reach a nonsensical trade deal with Beijing that will hurt American families economically,\u201d said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration \u201chas not wavered \u2014 and will never waver \u2014 in safeguarding our national and economic security to put America first.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration continues to have productive conversations with China to address longstanding unfair trade practices,\u201d Desai said, adding that export controls on cutting-edge technology and many tariffs remain in place.<\/p>\n Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after his latest round of trade negotiations with the Chinese in July, told CNBC that the team was \u201cvery careful to keep trade and national security separate.\u201d And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on Fox News Radio, said the U.S. remains \u201cas committed as ever to our partners … in places like Taiwan\u201d but also spoke of the strategic need to keep trade ties with China steady.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, we have two big, the two largest economies in the world,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cAn all-out trade conflict between the U.S. and China, I think the U.S. would benefit from it in some ways, but the world would be hurt by it.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s worry over Taiwan<\/p>\n Taiwan<\/a> is concerned that the self-governing island could be \u201ctrade-able\u201d when Trump seeks a deal with Beijing, said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan. \u201cOur concern is that, will any of the trade deals lead to concession on political support for Taiwan?\u201d Hsu said, citing the case last month where the White House allegedly blocked a request<\/a> for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through the United States.<\/p>\n The U.S. maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and has always allowed such transits in the past. Experts are worried that the Trump administration is setting a bad precedent, and Democrats have seized on it to criticize Trump.<\/p>\n Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, called the move \u201cboth a sharp break from precedent and another example of the Trump administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal.\u201d He said the policy decision \u201csends a dangerous signal\u201d that Taiwan\u2019s democracy is negotiable.<\/p>\n Hsu said Taiwan fears that Trump could be coerced or compelled to support the one-China principle, as espoused by Beijing, that acknowledges Beijing\u2019s sovereignty claim over the island. There are also concerns that Trump might utter anything in support of \u201cunification.\u201d That was a request Beijing raised with the Biden administration, though it failed to get a positive response. <\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s upon Taiwan to persuade Trump to think of the island as \u201can economic partner rather than something that he can trade when he negotiates with China,\u201d Hsu said, suggesting that Taiwan step up defense commitments, increase energy procurement, open its market to U.S. companies and invest more in the U.S.<\/p>\n But Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Trump is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic law that obligates the U.S. to maintain an unofficial relationship with the island and provides it with sufficient hardware to deter any invasion by China.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can dial the (U.S.-Taiwan) relationship up and down,\u201d Sun said, \u201cbut he can\u2019t remove the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Export controls have been instituted, to mixed results<\/p>\n