By
Updated on: May 14, 2026 / 7:58 PM EDT
/ CBS News
Add CBS News on Google
New York City — President Trump's state visit to China this week for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping has garnered palpable excitement amongst the Chinese community in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing, home to one of the largest Asian populations in the U.S.Mandarin is the language of choice at the markets and shops lining one of the main thoroughfares in Flushing, and even Vietnamese and Malaysian residents prefer the Chinese dialect to English. CBS News spoke to two dozen people, mostly from China, but some from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam."A strong U.S. and a strong China benefits everyone," one man who has resided in Queens for 34 years told CBS News. An American citizen in his 70s born in China, the man has memories of a time when China was more open to the West. Speaking in Mandarin, he expressed hopes of closer relations between China and the U.S., and seemed undaunted by the obstacles to such a rapprochement, namely the Iran war, the tension surrounding the Taiwan issue, tariffs and trade.Taiwan has emerged as the top priority for Xi, but the Taiwanese people in Flushing who spoke to CBS News expressed strong feelings about Taiwanese independence."China and Taiwan have nothing in common," said a Taiwanese-born man sitting in the sun eating hot pot.Most of the Chinese-born people who spoke to CBS News declined to talk about their perspectives on Xi.
