Air Force One landed in Beijing on Wednesday, delivering President Donald Trump to mainland China for the first time since 2017, and the first visit by any sitting U.S. president in roughly nine years. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met Trump on the tarmac alongside a red carpet, a military honor guard, a military band, and some 300 Chinese youths waving American and Chinese flags and chanting "welcome, welcome."
The three-day trip puts Trump face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping starting Thursday morning at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing. The agenda is dense: trade, tariffs, Iran, Taiwan, artificial intelligence, and a proposed new framework to stabilize the economic relationship between the world's two largest economies.
It is the kind of visit Washington has not attempted in years, and one that almost didn't happen at all. Trump originally planned the trip months ago but postponed it to remain in the United States as the military conflict with Iran escalated. Three months later, that conflict remains unresolved, though a shaky ceasefire has given both sides room to negotiate.
Trump walked down the stairs flanked by Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Elon Musk, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He shook hands with local Chinese leaders and pumped his fist toward the cheering crowd of students lining the tarmac. U.S. Ambassador to China David Purdue and China's Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng were both on hand.
The delegation aboard Air Force One read like a who's who of American business and media. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, picked up during a refueling stop in Alaska, was on the plane, along with Fox News host Sean Hannity, film director Brett Ratner, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. CEOs from Boeing, Goldman Sachs, and GE Aerospace also made the flight, as the Daily Mail reported.
The board of U.S. businessmen arriving in Beijing with the president, by one accounting, represents tens of trillions of dollars in combined market value. The New York Post noted that the delegation also included Apple's Tim Cook and BlackRock's Larry Fink, underscoring the breadth of corporate interest in the visit.
That lineup tells you everything about the trip's purpose. This is not a courtesy call. It is a deal-making expedition backed by the kind of private-sector firepower that gives a president real leverage at the negotiating table.
While still aboard Air Force One, Trump posted on social media that he intended to press Xi on market access for American firms:
"I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to 'open up' China so that these brilliant people can work their magic. I will make that my very first request."
The language was diplomatic, even warm. But the underlying demand was blunt: let American companies compete in China on fairer terms. Exports account for roughly 20 percent of China's GDP, a figure that gives Beijing its own powerful incentive to keep trade flowing, and gives Trump a card to play.
Trump also signaled confidence on the Iran front. He told reporters Tuesday that he had the situation "very much under control," Newsmax reported, and suggested Iran was not a primary topic for the Xi meetings. That framing comes despite the $29 billion the war has already cost American taxpayers, a figure that exceeds the $25 billion the Pentagon reported to Congress just two weeks earlier.
The gap between those two numbers has drawn no public explanation. Families watching their tax dollars fund a distant conflict deserve a straight answer on where the money is going and why the figures keep shifting.
Thursday's itinerary begins with a formal arrival ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, followed by a nearly two-hour closed-door meeting between Trump and Xi. After that, Trump returns to his hotel for several hours before heading back to the Great Hall for a state banquet. Friday brings a photo-op with Xi, ceremonial tea, and another bilateral meeting before Trump departs Beijing in the afternoon, with a scheduled arrival back in Washington Friday evening.
The last time the two leaders met in person was in Busan, South Korea, in October. That meeting produced a renegotiated tariff deal after Trump's April 2025 "Liberation Day" gambit hit Beijing with punishing rates. The fact that both sides came back to the table then, and are sitting down again now, suggests the economic relationship, however contentious, remains too consequential for either country to abandon.
The Trump administration has also floated the creation of a "Board of Trade" to help the U.S. and China stabilize their balance sheets. A companion proposal, a "Board of Investment," would give both countries a venue to resolve hurdles blocking cross-border investment, including roadblocks preventing Chinese capital from flowing into the United States.
Greer, speaking in Paris after meeting Chinese counterparts alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, framed the approach in practical terms:
"What kinds of things should we be importing from China, what kinds of things should we be exporting to China, to really make sure that we can focus on areas of mutual benefit. That's what we expect for leaders to be talking about when they meet."
The postponement of this trip is itself a reminder of how much the Iran conflict has shaped Trump's second term. He delayed the China visit by months to manage the escalation, and recent confrontations in the Gulf of Oman have kept the pressure high. The ceasefire in place now is fragile. No one in Washington or Beijing pretends otherwise.
Trump has sought to bring Xi in as a mediator in the Iran standoff, a role China may or may not be willing to play, and one that comes with its own price tag in diplomatic concessions. The Washington Examiner reported that the summit agenda includes not just trade but the Iran war, Taiwan, and artificial intelligence, making the visit one of the most consequential diplomatic encounters of Trump's presidency.
Xi, for his part, is expected to push for tariff relief. Beijing took a hit from the Liberation Day rates, and China's export-dependent economy needs stable access to American consumers. That gives Trump room to extract concessions, if the administration plays the hand well.
The families of Americans still detained in China are watching this visit with particular urgency, hoping the president uses his direct access to Xi to press for their loved ones' release.
State visits to China are choreographed down to the last flag-waving student. The 300 youths on the tarmac, the honor guard, the red carpet, none of it is spontaneous. Beijing rolled out this reception because it wants something from the meeting, too.
Just the News confirmed the elaborate nature of the ceremony, describing it as one of the most formal airport welcomes a visiting leader has received in Beijing in recent memory. Trump last took part in a welcoming ceremony with Xi during his 2017 state visit. The pageantry this time appears designed to match or exceed that standard.
The contrast with how previous administrations handled China is worth noting. For years, Washington's approach oscillated between scolding Beijing in public and conceding to it in private. Trump's method, arrive with a planeload of CEOs, demand market access on social media before wheels-down, and treat the visit as a transaction rather than a seminar, is a different model entirely.
Whether it produces results depends on what emerges from that closed-door meeting Thursday. The broader geopolitical landscape is volatile enough that both leaders have reason to walk away with something concrete.
Trump said it plainly before departure: "We're doing a lot of business, but it's smart business." The next 48 hours will show whether Beijing agrees, or whether the smiles on the tarmac were just for the cameras.
Three hundred kids waving flags make for a nice photo. The real test is what happens when the doors close and the flags come down.
