The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, face a historic bilateral summit in Beijing that will take place on Thursday with the aim of moving towards a more stable and predictable relationship between the two largest world powers.
In the agenda, points of tension for China stand out, such as its nuclear race or the issue of Taiwan, but also other matters that transcend the international level, such as the war in Iran or the tariff hecatomb that shook the relationship between both countries last year.
Trump has landed this Wednesday at Beijing airport, where he has been received with honors by the Chinese vice prime minister, Han Zheng, in an act charged with patriotism, with flags of both countries to the rhythm of a military march.
Trump and Xi will meet on Thursday, although the appointment has been preceded by economic and trade negotiations that the Chinese vice prime minister and the United States Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, have held this Wednesday in Seoul (South Korea).
A Window for United States Companies
Ten years after his first visit to China, Trump returns to Beijing in a radically different context. If in 2017 the focus was on the trade deficit and tariffs, today the relationship between the world's two largest powers is moving between geopolitical fragility and technological competition.
For Beijing, the main concern is instability in the Middle East and the risk that any breakdown of the ceasefire in the region could affect the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route through which nearly half of the oil consumed by China transits.
In Washington, on the other hand, attention is focused on the trade truce reached with China, signed last October in Busan (South Korea). A large part of the interests of the big American companies that have accompanied Trump on this visit depend on its continuity.
Through a message on the social network Truth Social, Trump has assured this Wednesday that he will ask the Chinese leader, whom he has described as "a leader of extraordinary distinction," -which reflects the friendly tone of the meeting- to allow the entry of American companies to "make use of their talent and contribute to taking the People's Republic to a higher level".
The president has pointed out that this will be his "first and main request", considering that economic openness would be "highly beneficial for both countries".
Trump's 'Business' Delegation
The delegation traveling with the president clearly reflects that economic priority. On board Air Force One were some of the leading executives from the technology and financial sectors of the United States.
Among them stands out Elon Musk, with important interests in the Chinese market through Tesla and Starlink. Also part of the trip is the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, whose activity depends largely on semiconductor sales to the Asian giant, in full global race for leadership in artificial intelligence.
Representatives from Apple, highly dependent on Chinese manufacturing capacity, and from Meta, which has aspired for years to gain a presence in a market that remains strategic, are joining the delegation.
The financial sector has also wanted to be present. Executives from firms such as BlackRock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Mastercard and Visa accompany the US president on a visit in which diplomacy and business advance hand in hand.
Rare earths
On the table, there are also rare earths. Beijing incorporated this element into its commercial pressure strategy at the beginning of April last year, when it announced global export restrictions on elements such as samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium, seven of the 17 that make up this group, in addition to derived magnets, amid rising tariff tension with Washington.
The imposed licensing system had a direct impact on key sectors such as defense, aeronautics, automotive, clean energy, and the semiconductor industry, generating bottlenecks in international supply chains.
Months later, tensions escalated again when China expanded controls in October on technologies linked to the mining, smelting, separation, and recycling of these materials, whose processing and supply it dominates on a global scale.
China's red line: Taiwan
One of the most sensitive issues of the summit will be Taiwan, the main focus of friction between Washington and Beijing. On the island, they are attentively following every gesture for fear that the White House may use US backing for Taipei as a bargaining chip in a broader negotiation with China.
The tension was reinforced last December, when Trump authorized a weapons sale package to the island valued at 11 billion dollars, the largest approved to date by the United States, although its delivery has not yet materialized.
At the same time, US intelligence services have nuanced the Pentagon's forecasts about a possible Chinese invasion in 2027. Although they consider that Beijing might not resort to a military offensive on that horizon, they maintain that China's strategic objective remains the same: to achieve reunification with Taiwan, preferably through mechanisms of political, economic, and diplomatic pressure, without the need to resort to the direct use of force.