By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US President, Donald Trump is set to arrive Beijing on Wednesday on the first visit to China by a US President in nearly a decade, as he seeks to ramp up trade despite potential friction over Taiwan and Iran.
Leaving Washington on Tuesday on a trip that was delayed by his war, Trump said he expected a “long talk” with his counterpart Xi Jinping about Iran, which relies on China as the top customer for its US-sanctioned oil.
But he also played down disagreements on Iran, saying that Xi has been “relatively good, to be honest with you”.
“I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other. We’ll win it peacefully or otherwise,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House.
This week’s trip, the first since Trump visited in 2017 will involve high-stakes talks with Xi on Thursday and Friday, during a packed itinerary that includes a state banquet and tea reception.
Trump said Monday that he would speak to Xi about US arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China — a departure from historic US insistence that it will not consult Beijing on its support to the island.
China’s controls on rare earth exports and the countries’ raucous trade relationship are among the topics expected to be taken up by the heads of the world’s top two economies.
The tense build-up to the superpower summit was already visible Tuesday on the streets of Beijing, with police monitoring major intersections and checking the ID cards of passengers on the metro, AFP journalists saw.
Trade ties between Beijing and Washington have been fraught in recent years. The two sides are currently maintaining a one-year truce in their tariff war reached at Trump’s and Xi’s last meeting in South Korea in October.
China’s major surplus in trade with the United States has long worried Trump, who slapped tariffs on the country’s goods during his first term in office.
Trump will be accompanied in China by a large group of top US business executives, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, the White House has said.
The highly anticipated summit according to AFP report comes at an uncertain time for China’s economy, which has struggled in recent years with sluggish domestic spending and a protracted debt crisis in the once-booming property sector.
Trump said Monday that his personal relationship with Xi would prevent a Chinese invasion of the island, a territory which Beijing claims ownership of.
“I think we’ll be fine. I have a very good relationship with President Xi. He knows I don’t want that to happen”, he said.
