{"id":213140,"date":"2026-06-08T23:49:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-leaves-china-without-breakthroughs-on-iran-taiwan-or-ai-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:49:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:49:46","slug":"trump-leaves-china-without-breakthroughs-on-iran-taiwan-or-ai-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-leaves-china-without-breakthroughs-on-iran-taiwan-or-ai-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump leaves China without breakthroughs on Iran, Taiwan or AI – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

US president hails \u2018fantastic\u2019 deals, but details remain scarce after pageantry and little progress at much-hyped summit with Xi
Donald Trump<\/a> left China<\/a> on Friday after a much-hyped summit of the world\u2019s two major powers that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress.
The US president had gone into the two-day talks with China\u2019s Xi Jinping<\/a> weakened by his prolonged war in Iran, and did little to change the perception that he and his nation are diminished on the global stage.
Instead it was Xi who delivered the sharpest rhetoric of the meeting \u2013 over the future status of the self-governing island of Taiwan, with Trump notably failing to push back.
In his final remarks in Beijing on Friday, Trump did claim that the US and China<\/a> struck \u201cfantastic trade deals\u201d, although details were scarce, and that he and Xi settled \u201ca lot of different problems\u201d.
But critics are likely to suggest that the carefully choreographed summit \u2013 attended by tech executives including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple, as well as Trump\u2019s son Eric \u2013 was more performative than substantive, with no major breakthrough on Iran<\/a>, Taiwan or the countries\u2019 AI arms race.
Instead, as he departed, Trump posted on his Truth Social network: \u201cChina has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.!\u201d \u2013 a reference to his long-running campaign to build a $400m ballroom<\/a> at the White House.
But he will return to Washington to find that the war in Iran still poses a major political headache. There is much speculation about how much pressure the US is putting on China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to use its leverage with Iran to encourage the country to reopen the strait of Hormuz. And there is a question mark over whether or not Beijing would be willing to accede to that pressure.
Speaking alongside Xi at the Zhongnanhai garden in Beijing on Friday, Trump said: \u201cWe did discuss Iran. We feel very similar about [how] we want it to end. We don\u2019t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open.\u201d
He added: \u201cWe want them [Iran] to get it ended because it\u2019s a crazy thing there, a little bit crazy. And it\u2019s no good, it can\u2019t happen.\u201d
The White House readout of the more than two hours of talks between Trump and Xi<\/a> on Thursday said the leaders \u201cagreed that the strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy\u201d and that \u201cPresident Xi also made clear China\u2019s opposition to the militarisation of the strait\u201d.
Later on Friday, Trump said he was considering lifting sanctions on Chinese companies that buy Iranian oil. He told Fox News that Xi assured him China will not supply Iran with military equipment, adding: \u201cBut at the same time he said they buy a lot of their oil there, and they\u2019d like to keep doing that. He\u2019d like to see Hormuz strait opened \u2026 I said, well, we didn\u2019t stop it. They did it.\u201d
China\u2019s foreign ministry on Friday again called for a ceasefire in Iran and said the strait of Hormuz should be opened \u201cas soon as possible\u201d.
About half of China\u2019s crude oil passes through the waterway, but the bigger threat for the Chinese economy is if the conflict in the Middle East causes a global recession that dents demand for its exports.
But many in Beijing feel that the crisis in Iran is not China\u2019s responsibility.
Zhou Bo, a retired senior army colonel and a senior fellow in the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, said: \u201cOn Iran, China definitely wants to help but I read what Rubio said: he actually seems to shift the burden to the Chinese side. In China, we have a saying: it is like, \u2018Why should I clean your shit?\u2019\u201d
Meanwhile, Beijing made it clear that Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as part of its territory, was a top priority during this week\u2019s meeting. Xi warned Trump that their countries could have \u201cclashes and even conflicts\u201d if Taiwan was not handled properly, calling it the most important issue in US-China relations.
On Friday Trump insisted that \u201cnothing\u2019s changed\u201d about the US policy on Taiwan, while admitting that he may not approve a major arms sale for the self-governing island. Speaking to Fox News on the flight back to the US, the president said he made no commitment regarding the island, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a conflict on Taiwan.\u201d
Taiwan\u2019s foreign ministry said it had taken note of Trump\u2019s remarks regarding the island, adding that arms sales are a security commitment explicitly set out in the Taiwan Relations Act.
Xi sees unifying Taiwan with China as a core part of his legacy and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve that goal. At the top of Beijing\u2019s wishlist regarding Taiwan is for the US to stop supplying the island with defensive weaponry.
Trump said on Air Force One he had not determined whether to move forward on a major arms package for Taiwan that is planned for this year.
Last year, the US approved a record $11bn arms package for Taiwan, sparking outrage in Beijing. There are plans for another package worth $14bn to be passed this year, but the White House reportedly stalled the plans ahead of Trump\u2019s trip to Beijing.
Trump was making the first US presidential visit to China in nearly a decade and revelled in the hospitality, including an immaculate arrival ceremony, tour of the Temple of Heaven and lavish state banquet in the Great Hall of the People, where Xi told Trump that China\u2019s \u201cgreat rejuvenation\u201d could go \u201chand in hand\u201d with \u201cMake America great again\u201d.
Meeting for a working tea and lunch in the Zhongnanhai garden on Friday, Trump admired the roses, and said that Xi had promised to send him some seeds for the White House rose garden.
\u201cThis has been an incredible visit,\u201d he said as the men sat together in an opulent wood-panelled room with a huge golden carpet. \u201cI think a lot of good has come of it. We\u2019ve made some fantastic trade deals \u2013 great for both countries \u2026 We\u2019ve really done some wonderful things, I believe.\u201d
Trump added: \u201cWe\u2019ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn\u2019t have been able to solve.\u201d
He claimed that China agreed to buy US oil, soybeans and 200 Boeing jets, with a potential commitment to purchase up to 750 planes, although Chinese officials did not confirm this. But on many key issues, there seems to have been little by way of concrete agreement.
There was scant mention of human rights on the trip, although Trump told Fox News on the flight back from Beijing that Xi said he was \u201cseriously considering\u201d releasing jailed pastors in China. That would probably include Ezra Jin<\/a>, a pastor who was arrested last year amid a sweeping crackdown on Christians. But Trump said that the case of Jimmy Lai<\/a>, a democracy activist jailed in Hong Kong, was a \u201ctough one\u201d.
Julian Gewirtz, a former director for China on the national security council during the Biden administration, said the new Chinese formulation about US-China relations was about \u201clocking in this current phase of strategic stalemate for the remainder of Trump\u2019s term and ideally beyond\u201d.
\u201cXi Jinping has been working for years to be ready for this moment, to bring an American president to Beijing as a peer, widely acknowledged as such around the world. And now it is happening,\u201d Gerwirtz said.
Wu Xinbo, a professor of international studies at Fudan University and a Chinese government adviser, said the balance of power between the US and China was \u201cshifting towards greater parity\u201d.
\u201cIn the past, it always seemed as though the United States held the upper hand, constantly exerting pressure on China and taking the offensive. Now, however, it\u2019s fair to say that the two countries have reached a new point of equilibrium,\u201d Wu said.
At a busy intersection near Trump\u2019s hotel, the crowds that gathered to catch a glimpse of the presidential motorcade were thinner on Friday morning than on Thursday evening, with the heavy police presence encouraging people not to loiter. Many grumbled about the inconvenience caused by the repeated road closures.
Asked for their views on Trump, the word that came up again and again from Beijingers was \u201cunpredictable\u201d.
\u201cWhat he says isn\u2019t necessarily what it means,\u201d said one Trump-watcher, who declined to give his name.
Yu-chen Li contributed additional research<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US president hails \u2018fantastic\u2019 deals, but details remain scarce after pageantry and little progress at much-hyped summit with XiDonald Trump left China on Friday after a much-hyped summit of the world\u2019s two major powers that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress.The US president had gone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}