Trump heads to Beijing for high-stakes Xi talks as trade war, Taiwan tensions simmer

Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen said on "America Reports" that President Donald Trump is entering upcoming talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping from a position of strength following a series of global actions.

"He's strengthened his hand going into these talks with Xi Jinping," Thiessen said.

Thiessen pointed to U.S. actions involving Iran, Russia and Venezuela, arguing those moves have shifted the balance heading into the high-level meeting.

He said the strategy has increased U.S. leverage over China, particularly when it comes to global energy supply and pressure points.

"I think he's in a very strong position going into these talks in Beijing," he added.

President Donald Trump said trade will be the primary focus of his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as he prepares for talks during his trip to China.

"We're gonna be talking with President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say more than anything else will be trade," Trump said.

Trump made the remarks to reporters during a gaggle before departing the White House, where he previewed the agenda for the high-level meeting.

"I have a great relationship with President Xi, and I think it's going to remain that way," he added, saying the two leaders have "a lot of things to discuss."

Trump downplayed the role of Iran in the discussions, saying it would not be a primary topic.

"I wouldn't say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control," Trump said.

Wang Chunyan held a photograph toward the camera, her hands trembling slightly as she pointed to each of the 21 smiling faces: a husband and wife, a university lecturer, a young engineer, friends she met in prison.

Some died in detention, she said. Others after years of abuse. Others disappeared into China’s vast security system and never returned the same. "More than 25 of my friends have died in this persecution. I only have photos of 21 of them," Chunyan said, her voice breaking.

For more than two decades, the 70-year-old Falun Gong practitioner said, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) systematically dismantled her life, stripping away the business she had built, the home she once shared with her family and, eventually, seven years of her life in prison.

But the hardest thing for her, is that she believes it took her husband too. "My beloved husband died due to the persecution," Chunyan claimed during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital's Efrat Lachter

President Donald Trump said he expects a "very good meeting" with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of planned talks this week, signaling optimism as the two leaders prepare for a high-stakes discussion.

"We're going to have a very good meeting... we both look forward to meeting. It's going to be great," Trump said.

Trump made the remarks to reporters during a gaggle before departing the White House, adding that he recently spoke with Xi and that both leaders are entering the meeting with positive expectations.

The anticipated talks come as the United States and China remain at odds over key issues including trade, Taiwan and broader geopolitical tensions, placing added attention on the outcome of the meeting.

The meeting is expected to serve as a critical opportunity for both sides to address ongoing disputes and potentially ease friction between the world’s two largest economies

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel with President Donald Trump to Beijing despite a 2020 Chinese Communist Party sanction on Rubio previously banning him from the country.

Rubio will join Trump's delegation on the critical visit, despite ongoing sanctions, the State Department confirmed to Fox News.

Though the sanctions are still active, the Chinese government considers them only applicable to Rubio as a senator, the position he held when he was sanctioned, and not applicable to him as Secretary of State.

The CCP applied sanctions to Rubio, as well as a number of other U.S. officials, in July 2020 after the U.S. applied its own sanctions on Chinese companies for the country's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minorities, which the U.S. described as human rights abuses.

The CCP again sanctioned Rubio in August 2020, that time in retaliation for U.S. sanctions over a new Chinese National Security Law which the U.S. claimed undermined Hong Kong's autonomy.

Rubio has repeatedly dismissed the sanctions as meaningless and called them a badge of honor.

“I had no intention of traveling to China soon anyway,” he said following the first round of sanctions.

“I didn’t think they were going to roll out the welcome mat. I’m actually proud of it. Anytime a totalitarian, evil regime is against you, you know you’re on the right side.”

Despite the diplomatic friction, Rubio has seemingly been able to conduct statecraft with China anyway.

Rubio held a call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on April 30 in which Rubio called the U.S.-China relationship the "most important bilateral relationship in the world," according to a Chinese state readout of the call.

He will join Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the crucial Beijing visit.

President Donald Trump said that the ongoing ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is on "life support," during Monday remarks at the White House just one day before he departs for a critical state visit to China.

Answering a question about Iran's counterproposal to a peace plan, Trump said "It was just unacceptable. You know, a lot of people said, well, does he have a plan? Yeah, of course they do have a--I have the best plan ever. And Iran has been defeated militarily. Totally. they have a little left they probably built up during this period of time. We'll knock that out in about a day. But I have a plan. You know, that's a very simple plan. I don't know why you don't say it like it is. Iran can not have a nuclear weapon. They're very dangerous. They're very volatile."

He went on to call the ceasefire "unbelievably weak," while calling Iran's proposal a "piece of garbage."

Before Iran began attacking cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, China got between 45 and 48 percent of their oil through the Strait. Trump and administration officials have pointed to that fact as reason China should be open to collaborating with the U.S. on reopening the Strait.

"They have every incentive to do this, " U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue told Fox News' Bill Hemmer during a Tuesday interview from Beijing. "They get a third of their oil from the Gulf States, only 15 percent from Iran. But they import 75 percent of their oil, they can't have this status quo for long. This Strait needs to be open," Perdue concluded.

Trump has at times criticized China for not doing more to help reopen the Strait but at other times acknowledged that China has helped nudge Tehran back to the negotiating table.

While Trump has publicly urged China, the globe's largest buyer of Iranian oil, to be more involved, his proxies have signaled that Iran will not be a sticking point in negotiations.

"We don’t want this to be something that derails the broader relationship or the agreements that might come out of our meeting in Beijing," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week.

A California mayor who has since resigned has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and has agreed to plead guilty, according to federal prosecutors who say she secretly worked to push pro-Beijing messaging inside the United States before she took office.

Eileen Wang, former mayor of Arcadia, California, has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and has agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense, the Justice Department announced. She now faces up to 10 years in federal prison along with a potential $250,000 fine, though any sentence would be determined by a federal judge.

Federal prosecutors say Wang admitted she acted "at the direction and control" of Chinese government officials from at least 2020 through 2022, coordinating with individuals in the U.S. to spread pro-Beijing messaging, all without notifying the U.S. Attorney General as required by law. The conduct described by prosecutors occurred before Wang took office on the Arcadia City Council in December 2022.

This is an excerpt from a story by Stepheny Price. You can read the full article here.

Two former Chinese defense ministers have been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption, in one of the most severe punishments handed down to senior military officials in recent years.

Reuters reported that Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu received the suspended death sentences on May 7 following graft convictions by China’s military court, according to state media.

The ruling underscores the depth of President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign within the armed forces, the outlet said.

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Wei was convicted of accepting bribes, while Li was found guilty of both accepting and offering bribes, based on court documents.

This is an excerpt from a story by Emma Bussey. You can read the full article here.

U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue lauded the unity between President Donald Trump and the business leaders joining him on a state visit to China.

Answering a question about the U.S. delegation of CEOs traveling with Trump to China, Perdue told Fox News' Bill Hemmer on Tuesday "it says we're united."

"It says that the business community is behind President Trump. These people want a level playing field, they're here to echo what President Trump is talking about and we welcome that and I think China does as well," Perdue said.

Of the 16 business executives traveling with Trump, half are heavily involved in the design, production or consumption of semiconductors, an industry at the center of U.S. trade policy on China.

Meta, Tesla, Apple and Boeing all design and develop custom AI chips for technology products while Qualcomm, Micron and GE Aerospace actively manufacture advanced semiconductors.

Coherent produces a range of tools such as lasers that are integral for semiconductor manufacturing. Executives from all eight companies will be joining Trump on his trip.

President Donald Trump is slated to visit China this week, and according to a White House official, business figures including Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook and more than a dozen others will travel to China with the U.S. delegation.

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon are some of the other figures listed.

Others on the list provided by the White House official include Blackstone Chairman, CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman, Cargill Board Chair and CEO Brian Sikes, Citi Board Chair and CEO Jane Fraser, Coherent CEO Jim Anderson, GE Aerospace chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon and Visa CEO Ryan McInerney.

This is an excerpt from a Fox Business article by Alex Nitzberg. You can read the full article here.

President Donald Trump heads to Beijing for a closely watched summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, setting the stage for a day of high-stakes talks on trade, technology and global security flashpoints.

Both sides are signaling a desire for stability after years of escalating tensions, but major divisions remain unresolved. A fragile trade truce is still in place following steep tariffs and retaliatory measures, with officials expected to discuss whether further agreements — or extensions — are possible.

Beyond trade, the agenda is expected to include U.S. restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports, a key pressure point in the growing tech rivalry between the two countries. Taiwan is also likely to feature prominently, with Beijing calling it the “biggest risk” to the relationship as military tensions persist.

The ongoing Iran conflict could add another layer to the talks, with U.S. officials urging China to use its influence over Tehran, particularly on global energy routes.

Few expect any major breakthroughs, but the meeting could shape the next phase of one of the world’s most consequential relationships.