Anabelle Colaco
16 May 2026

BEIJING, China: President Donald Trump left Beijing on May 15 after two days of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping that produced warm rhetoric and ceremonial pageantry but few concrete breakthroughs on trade, technology and Taiwan.

The visit, Trump's first to China since 2017, was intended to deliver visible economic and diplomatic gains ahead of U.S. midterm elections in November. China said Xi will make a return visit to the United States later this year.

"It's been an incredible visit. I think a lot of good has come of it," Trump said at his final meeting with Xi at Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in Beijing.

On his flight home, Trump said Xi had reiterated China's opposition to Taiwanese independence. "I heard him out. I didn't make a comment ... I made no commitment either way," Trump said.

He added that he would soon decide whether to approve a pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan after speaking with "the person that right now is ... running Taiwan."

Trump also said Xi asked whether the United States would defend Taiwan if China attacked the island. "There's only one person that knows that, and it is me. I'm the only person," Trump said. "That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said, I don't talk about that."

He added that he would soon decide whether to approve a pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan.

According to China's official account of the talks, Xi warned that mishandling the Taiwan issue could lead to conflict.

Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, said Xi's proposal to frame bilateral ties as "constructive strategic stability" offered a possible new basis for relations.

"Until now, China hasn't proposed an alternative - now they have - if the U.S. side agrees, that is progress," Da said.

Trump also touted a Chinese commitment to buy 200 Boeing aircraft, though the announcement disappointed investors because earlier reports had suggested an order of as many as 500 planes.

There was no breakthrough on China approving sales of Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence chips, despite CEO Jensen Huang joining Trump's delegation.

When asked by Reuters about progress, Huang said only: "I love China, had a great time."

Feng Chucheng, founder and partner at Beijing-based Hutong Research, said the summit focused more on stabilizing ties than on major commercial deals. "I wouldn't use the size of deals to measure the outcome of the summit," Feng said.

Trump said he and Xi "did not discuss tariffs," and the two sides announced no resolution to China's export controls on rare earth minerals.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the meetings that U.S. policy toward Taiwan remained unchanged.