US President Donald Trump declared he had struck "fantastic trade deals" with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the conclusion of a two-day superpower summit in Beijing, while analysts and markets tempered their enthusiasm, seeing the outcomes as a stabilisation rather than a transformation of one of the world's most consequential bilateral relationships.
Meeting Xi in the gardens of Zhongnanhai — the central leadership compound adjacent to Beijing's Forbidden City, and a venue laden with historical symbolism dating to Richard Nixon's landmark 1972 visit — Trump said "a lot of good" had come from the trip, which was his first to China since 2017. The specific deals he referenced include a Chinese commitment to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft, as well as US oil, liquefied natural gas, and soybeans. Trump's delegation was notably accompanied by prominent technology and business executives, including Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon. Xi called the visit a "milestone" and described the emerging relationship as one of "constructive strategic stability", while promising to send Trump seeds for the White House Rose Garden.
Beyond trade, the summit addressed several geopolitical flashpoints. Trump said Xi had assured him that China would not supply military equipment to Iran — whose conflict with the US and Israel has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy shipments — and had expressed willingness to help reopen it. China's foreign ministry, for its part, called for "a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire" and said shipping lanes "should be reopened as soon as possible". On Taiwan, Xi warned that missteps on the issue could lead to "conflict", though US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that American policy on Taiwan remained "unchanged". Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also indicated the two sides had begun discussing "guardrails" for artificial intelligence, describing the US and China as the world's "two AI superpowers".
Despite the upbeat rhetoric, expert assessments of what was actually achieved remain cautious. The two leaders are expected to extend a one-year trade-war pause first agreed at an APEC summit in South Korea, but analysts note that structural tensions run deep. Average US tariffs on Chinese goods still stand at around 47.5 percent — up from 3.1 percent before Trump's first term — while China's average tariffs on US goods are approximately 31.9 percent, more than three times their 2018 level. Two-way goods trade, at roughly $415 billion in 2025, remains well below its 2022 peak of $690 billion. Analysts pointed out that China's domestic industries have grown increasingly competitive, reducing Beijing's incentive to open its markets significantly to American firms, and that any concessions are likely to be incremental and targeted at areas of existing Chinese demand, such as agricultural products and civilian aircraft.