But to get there, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping must navigate tricky frictions ranging from tech, trade, critical minerals and Taiwan in two days of meetings that are now also deeply overshadowed by the US war with Iran.
The trip is the first from an American president to China since Trump visited in 2017 — but it’s playing out in front of a vastly different backdrop.
Trump and Xi now sit on different sides of an increasingly fractured geopolitical landscape, especially as China’s close partner Iran remains defiant in the face of Washington’s demands to end the war.
And China has changed too: smarting from the first incarnation of Trump’s trade and tech war, Beijing has upgraded its export juggernaut and transformed itself into a high-tech power in its own right.
Trump will be sitting down with a counterpart who has tightened his grip on authority, extending his rule past China’s official term limits. Meanwhile, Xi faces a leader who has made a sweeping overhaul to US foreign policy, while serving in what US law dictates is his final term.
Here are the priorities for both men going into their heavily anticipated meeting, which will also include the kind of pomp and circumstance Trump enjoys, such as a tour of the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet.
How the two personalities manage these dynamics will have significant implications not just for the relationship between the world’s established and rising superpower but an international system with deep ties to both.
For Trump, it’s not the trip he envisioned, but the trip he gets.
A landmark meeting in South Korea last October helped ease tensions between Trump and Xi, with agreements made toward a major trade deal and tariff relief.
A follow-up summit planned for March was expected to focus on economic priorities and national security. And while there are plans for new trade deals, the US war with Iran has complicated Trump’s strategy.
Not wanting Iran to loom over his trip, Trump delayed his China visit to give the war — which he said would be resolved in a matter of weeks — time to play out.
But that war is now in its third month and a peace deal remains elusive. Trump on Monday said the monthlong ceasefire with Iran is on “massive life support.”
And now, amid a historic global energy crisis, there are major questions about whether Trump can get what he wants while the US remains embroiled in the conflict.
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