U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a three-day state visit — the first by an American president in nearly nine years — with formal summit meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for Thursday and Friday (May 14–15, 2026). Key agenda items include a potential trade deal focused on Chinese agricultural imports and access to critical minerals, U.S. pressure on Beijing to curb its support for Iran amid an ongoing U.S.-Israel military campaign and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (a critical global oil shipping lane) that has triggered an energy crisis, and Chinese demands for reaffirmed U.S. commitments on Taiwan and the easing of semiconductor export controls. While both sides have framed the summit as a "stabilising anchor" for a rivalry-laden relationship, Chinese analysts and academics say the Iran crisis has reinforced long-held views in Beijing about declining American power, with one Peking University scholar noting that Washington's "ability to impose outcomes unilaterally is declining."