The highly anticipated summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump from 13–15 May 2026 produced few tangible accomplishments beyond China’s commitment to buy 200 Boeing aircraft and a sizeable amount of US agricultural goods. Diplomatic malpractice by the Trump administration turned the meeting into a lost opportunity, allowing a better-prepared Beijing to set the agenda on Taiwan.
Both leaders appeared motivated to accentuate the positive in their relationship. Xi’s administration persuaded the United States to sign on to an aspirational framework of ‘a constructive relationship of strategic stability’ that is now the focus of Chinese domestic propaganda. But there was no joint statement and little substance to fill in the new slogan.
Despite expectations that the October 2025 truce over China’s rare earth export controls and US tariffs would be extended, there was no such announcement. China’s Ministry of Commerce later announced that the two sides had ‘agreed to continue implementing outcomes reached in previous talks’. Meanwhile Trump told journalists that he had not discussed tariffs. Trump’s excessive flattery also failed to persuade Xi to release Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old pro-democracy newspaper publisher serving a 20-year jail sentence in Hong Kong.
