Trump-Xi summit updates: US, China leaders hold talks on trade, tech, Iran

Today’s live coverage of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China ends here.

For all the latest developments, analyses and reactions, read more here and here.

• Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump met for a summit on a range of issues in Beijing.
• Xi warned Trump that missteps on Taiwan are China’s red line and could push their two countries into “conflict”.
• The two leaders agreed the Strait of Hormuz must be open for the free flow of energy, and Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.
• Addressing a state banquet in Beijing, Trump also invited Xi to the White House for a visit on September 24.
• Trump understands the sensitivities regarding Taiwan and will speak on the matter in the coming days, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Apple CEO Tim Cook are among the US business leaders joining Trump on his trip.

The US position on Taiwan is called “strategic ambiguity”. They say Taiwan exists, but also believe that it is part of greater China. They don’t support any independence movement, but they don’t want to see China take over Taiwan by force.

It is clear that this is where the priority lies for the Chinese.

In the readout from the American side, they said that there were constructive talks. They talked about opening up markets in China for US firms – something that Donald Trump is keen to do.

Also, Xi agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open and that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon.

For the US, it is all about Iran; for China, it is all about Taiwan. And the two of them believe they have leverage over the other to move positions.

Iranian media say Iran’s naval forces have been allowing Chinese ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since Wednesday night.

Iran has largely blocked shipping in the strait since the outbreak of war with the US and Israel on February 28.

The Chinese shipping movement comes as Donald Trump visits China for talks with his counterpart, Xi Jinping.

During the US president’s toast at the state banquet with Xi, he says citizens of the US and China have long shared a “deep sense of mutual respect”, and he has used history to illustrate his point.

Benjamin Franklin published the sayings of the philosopher Confucius, Trump said.

Chinese admirers of George Washington, the first US president, gave the US a stone tablet honouring his memory to adorn the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. The tablet was inscribed with the words of a Chinese official who called Washington a great general and statesman, Trump said.

Chinese workers helped lay the railway tracks that connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States while American travellers to China helped spread literacy and modern medicine, he said.

Trump also noted US President Theodore Roosevelt, acting on a request from China’s ambassador, provided money to establish Xi’s alma mater, Tsinghua University.

More than a dozen US business leaders have joined Trump on his state visit to China, where he is discussing issues including trade, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Upon arrival in Beijing on Wednesday, Trump introduced the group by telling Xi that they were all “distinguished representatives from the American business community” who “all respect and value China”, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.

So who are these business leaders? And what do they want?

Read more here.

Trump ⁠understands the sensitivities regarding Taiwan and will speak on ⁠the matter in the coming days, says US Treasury ⁠Secretary Scott Bessent.

“President Trump understands the issues here and understands the ‌sensitivities around all this, and anyone who has been saying otherwise does not understand the negotiating style of Donald Trump,” Bessent ⁠said in a ⁠taped interview with CNBC when asked about US policy on Taiwan, ⁠the democratically governed island claimed by ⁠Beijing.

Chinese President Xi ⁠Jinping told Trump during his visit to Beijing that disagreement over Taiwan ‌could send relations down a dangerous path and even ‌lead ‌to conflict.

The US president during a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ignores a question on Taiwan.

The Chinese president says President Trump and he have been fully aware of the expectations of the two nations.

“[We] have had multiple meetings and phone calls, keeping the US-China relations generally stable,” he said.

“Today President Trump and I had in-depth exchanges on China-US relations and international and regional dynamics,” the Chinese leader added.

“We both believe that the China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. We must make it work and never mess it up.”

Trump, in his banquet speech, referred to how Chinese workers had built the railroads that connected the two coasts of the United States.

Then, he spoke of the present-day cultural connection between the two nations: Basketball, the American sport, is now vastly popular in China; and Chinese fast food joints are popular in the US.

Twenty-five years ago, the US led China economically and technologically, but Beijing has since emerged as a global superpower and fierce competitor.

As President Donald Trump visits China, the two sides are seeking to address key sticking points, including Trump’s tariffs, which peaked at 145 percent; trade in rare earth minerals essential for modern technology and US arms sales to Taiwan.

The talks are also shadowed by the Iran conflict and the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway supplying 20 percent of global crude oil and gas, with Washington urging Beijing to pressure Tehran.

Al Jazeera’s Um-e-Kulsoom Shariff explains:

I think, overall, the message from Beijing to the US is that China is willing to be flexible and accept a level of disagreement on various issues – Iran, trade, or technology.

But there is one issue China and President Xi cannot be flexible on. That is Taiwan.

And everything that Beijing has offered in the last few hours – niceties, friendliness, reaching out a hand to cooperate more closely – is not free and is conditional on one thing: Washington accepts that there is only one China and that Beijing is very serious about getting Taiwan under its control.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang stressed the need for friendship and cooperation in US-China ties as he spoke with business leaders accompanying US President Donald Trump in Beijing.

Li met executives including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the sidelines of Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“China and the United States have been able to maintain frank and smooth dialogue and communication and actively safeguard a stable and healthy bilateral relationship,” despite international turbulence, Li said.

Collaboration is needed for “mutual success and shared prosperity,” Li added.

US President Donald Trump has arrived at a state banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

In the joint statement on the Xi and Trump meeting, there is no mention of Taiwan, the big issue flashing for the Chinese.

There is a mention of China supporting the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, saying that there should never be a charge for transiting through it.

They also agreed that Iran should never have nuclear weapons.

We were told that Trump was looking for a big economic win, but what we got very much was the status quo.

There will be two more face-to-face meetings between the leaders today and on Friday, [which] could be an opportunity for more concrete proposals.