US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to sit down with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila on Wednesday, a diplomatic encounter that could shape the trajectory of US-China relations for the rest of 2026. The meeting takes place during the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and its primary objective is laying the groundwork for a potential second Trump-Xi summit in September.
The July 22-23 ASEAN gathering in the Philippines serves as the stage for what could be a pivotal moment in great-power diplomacy. Rubio and Wang Yi will use the multilateral forum’s sidelines to hash out the logistics and agenda for a September summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping.
This follows Trump’s May 2026 visit to Beijing, which was the last major high-level engagement between the two nations.
Rubio was previously sanctioned by China over his vocal criticism of Beijing’s policies in Hong Kong. In a move that diplomats would describe as creative and everyone else would call a bureaucratic loophole, China employed a transliteration workaround, referring to him as “Marco Lu” to sidestep their own restrictions.
ASEAN itself has been quietly building its own digital economy infrastructure. The Digital Economy Framework Agreement, known as DEFA, concluded negotiations in May 2026, giving Southeast Asian nations a more unified approach to digital trade.
