U.S. President Donald Trump commenced his highly anticipated three-day visit to China on May 13, amid the ongoing Israel-U.S. war with Iran, and a year after Mr. Trump imposed steep import tariffs on several countries. China was one of the countries on which the U.S. imposed the highest tariffs. 

Mr. Trump’s previous visit to Beijing was in November 2017 during his first term as U.S. President. Interestingly, it was a few months after his 2017 visit that he started a trade war with China by levying high import tariffs on various products to fight the latter’s “unfair trade practices” and address the huge trade imbalance between the two countries. China retaliated with its own tariffs.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in China on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) for a three-day state visit during which he will discuss a host of global issues, including the Iran war, with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Mr. Trump, who is visiting China at the invitation of President Xi, was received by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng at the airport.

The leaders of ‌the world’s two largest economies will hold their seventh face-to-face talks. They last met face-to-face in October 2025 in Busan, South Korea.

The U.S. President arrived in China on his second visit in nine years to clinch a trade deal, to end the frictions over tariffs that affected its over $525 billion exports to the U.S.

President Trump would have a bilateral meeting with Xi on Thursday (May 14, 2026), U.S. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly had said.

Trump’s arrival trending on Chinese social media platform Weibo

A video posted by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showing U.S. President Donald Trump stepping out of the plane and walking down the stairs had more than 18,000 likes in less than 30 minutes on Wednesday (May 13, 2026).

More than 1,300 comments were made in response to the post.

Some welcomed Mr. Trump to China and others wrote: “peaceful coexistence, win-win cooperation.”

With inputs from PTI, AP