China’s Xi Jinping hailed positive trade negotiations with the United States at the start of a two-day summit with President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday, with discussions also set to cover the Iran war and ​U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

With his approval ratings dented by his entanglement in the Middle East, Trump’s hotly anticipated trip to China – the first by a U.S. president to America’s main strategic rival ‌since his last visit there in 2017 – has taken on added significance, Reuters reported.

“You’re a great leader, sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway,” Trump told Xi after the Chinese leader treated him to a grand reception at Beijing’s imposing Great Hall of the People, featuring an honour guard and throngs of children excitedly waving flowers and U.S. and China flags.

“There are those who say this may be the biggest summit ever,” Trump said. “It’s an honour to be with you. It’s an honour to be your friend ​and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before,” he added.

Xi opened the summit by telling Trump that stable China–U.S. relationship benefits the entire world. “When we cooperate, ​both sides benefit; when we confront each other, both sides suffer.”

He also said preparatory talks by economic and trade teams in South Korea on Wednesday had reached an “overall balanced and ⁠positive outcome”, according to a readout by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The latest round of negotiations aimed to maintain the trade truce struck last October and establish mechanisms to support future trade and investment, officials with knowledge of ​the matter said.

Joining Trump on the trip are a group of CEOs looking to resolve issues with China, including Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a late addition. Trump has said his first request to Xi will be to “open ​up” China to U.S. industry.

Musk, Huang and Apple’s Tim Cook were present during the opening talks between the leaders, with Musk telling reporters they were “wonderful” as he left the Great Hall.

This week’s leaders meetings will provide plenty of face time between Xi and Trump: after their initial talks, they will tour the UNESCO heritage site Temple of Heaven and attend a state banquet on Thursday, before taking tea and lunch together on Friday, according to the White House.

POWER DYNAMICS HAVE SHIFTED

The power dynamics have changed since Trump’s last visit to ​Beijing when China went out of its way to lavish Trump and buy billions in U.S. goods, said Ali Wyne, senior adviser for U.S.-China relations at International Crisis Group.

Back then “China was trying to persuade the United States of ​its growing status… This time around it’s the United States, unprompted, of its own volition, that is acknowledging that status,” Wyne said, pointing out Trump revived the term ‘G2’, referring to a superpower duo, when he last met Xi on the sidelines of ‌an APEC meeting ⁠in South Korea in October.

Trump enters the talks with a weakened hand.

U.S. courts have hemmed in his ability to levy tariffs at will on exports from China and other countries. The Iran war has also boosted inflation at home and escalated the risk that Trump’s Republican Party will lose control of one or both legislative branches in November’s midterm elections.

Though the Chinese economy has faltered, Xi does not face comparable economic or political pressure.

Nevertheless, both sides are eager to maintain a trade truce struck last October in which Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of rare earths, vital in making items from electric cars to weapons.

They are also expected to discuss forums ​to support mutual trade and investment and dialogue on AI ​issues.

Washington looks to sell Boeing airplanes, farm goods and ⁠energy to China to cut a trade deficit that has long irked Trump, while Beijing wants the U.S. to ease curbs on exports of chipmaking equipment and advanced semiconductors, officials involved in the planning said.

IRAN, TAIWAN IN FOCUS

Aside from trade matters, Trump is expected to encourage China to convince Iran to make a deal with Washington to end ​the conflict. But analysts doubt that Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight ​to the U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State ⁠Marco Rubio told Fox News aboard Air Force One that it was in China’s interest to help resolve the crisis as many of its ships are stuck in the Gulf and a slowdown in the global economy would hurt Chinese exporters.

For Xi, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China, will be a top priority.

China reiterated on Wednesday its strong opposition to the sales, with the status of a $14-billion package awaiting Trump’s approval still unclear. The U.S. is bound ⁠by law to ​provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties.

“Trump doesn’t really have that many of the cards ​to play. But I don’t think that Trump actually sees the situation that way,” said Ronan Fu, an assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s top government think tank Academia Sinica.

Xi has a reciprocal visit tentatively planned for later this year, which would be his first visit to the United ​States since Trump re-took office in 2025.

U.S. President ​Donald Trump has said he does not expect to need China’s help to end the war in Iran and ease Tehran’s grip on the Strait of ‌Hormuz, in remarks made before he arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a summit with President Xi Jinping.

Speaking before departing from Washington, Trump played down the role China could have in resolving the conflict, in which both sides have blocked maritime traffic through a waterway that normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise,” he told reporters.

Iran has ​appeared to firm up its control over the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, cutting deals with Iraq and Pakistan to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the region, ​according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Iranian officials have signalled they see that control as a long-term strategic goal. An army spokesperson said ⁠supervision of the waterway could generate revenue amounting to twice Iran’s oil income, while strengthening its foreign policy leverage.

“After this war ends, there will be no place for retreat,” the spokesperson said, ​according to comments carried by ISNA news agency.

More than one month after a tenuous ceasefire took effect, U.S. and Iranian demands to end the war remain far apart.

Washington has called for Tehran ​to scrap its nuclear programme and lift its chokehold on the strait, while Iran has demanded compensation for war damage, an end to the U.S. blockade and a halt to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is battling Iran-backed Hezbollah. Trump has dismissed those positions as “garbage.”

The ​United States’ war in Iran has cost $29 ‌billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided ​late last month, Reuters reported.

With just six months before ​midterm elections in which President Donald Trump’s ⁠Republicans may face an uphill battle to ​keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high ​in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the war with cost of living issues.

On April 29, the ​Pentagon said the war at that point ​had cost $25 billion.

Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of ‌the ⁠comptroller, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the new cost included updated repair and replacement of equipment and operational costs.

“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking ​at that ​estimate,” Hurst ⁠said. He was speaking alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of ​Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan ​Caine.

It ⁠is unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the $29 billion figure. A source told Reuters in March that ⁠Trump’s ​administration estimated the first six ​days of the war had cost at least $11.3 billion, read the repor.