Xi Jinping will visit the United States this week for talks with President Donald Trump, Beijing confirmed on Monday (September 21, 2026). Mr. Xi will be there from Wednesday (September 23) to Friday (September 25), a government statement said.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said the two leaders would “have an in-depth exchange of views on major issues concerning China-U.S. relations and world peace and development”.

Beijing would “work with the U.S. to enrich the substance of the relationship of constructive strategic stability between China and the U.S., strengthen dialogue and cooperation, and properly manage differences”, he added.

Washington had already made clear that the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies were due to meet this week, in what is expected to be a bid to ease tensions over trade, technology and broader strategic issues.

Mr. Trump will personally welcome Mr. Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday (September 23) before their meetings the following day, a U.S. official confirmed. The U.S. leader was welcomed by China’s vice president when he landed in Beijing for his state visit in May.

“I’ll be discussing almost everything with him,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday (September 20).

The simmering trade war between the two countries is a key concern, and the threat of military confrontation over Taiwan looms large as well.

While both sides have maintained a tariff truce for nearly a year, they have yet to secure a lasting agreement.

Vice Premier He Lifeng, China’s top negotiator for trade, is in the United States for meetings with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The two discussed creating a communication channel for AI concerns, as they met on Sunday (September 20).

Mr. Trump’s Iran war casts a long shadow too, as China seeks to avoid U.S. sanctions against countries dealing with Tehran, despite reports that Beijing supplied Iran with intelligence for a strike on U.S. troops.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (May 15, 2026) said ‌he thinks Chinese President Xi Jinping is ​seriously considering releasing a detained ⁠pastor in China but that the case of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai “is a tough one.”

“I ‌think he’s giving very serious consideration to the pastor,” Mr. Trump told ‌reporters on Air Force One ‌en ⁠route to the United States from ⁠China, but added that Mr. Xi told him that Lai’s case would be different.

“He told me that ​would be a ‌tough one,” Mr. Trump said.

Lai was sentenced to 20 years in jail in February on two counts of conspiracy to ‌collude with foreign forces and one count ​of publishing seditious materials.

Lai’s case had sparked global concerns over ⁠the national security clampdown in Hong Kong, in part reflecting his prominence as founder ‌of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper. Some foreign governments and international rights groups had criticised the impact of the security law in Hong Kong.

Zion Church founder, Pastor Jin Mingri, was arrested in November along ‌with nearly 30 other pastors and staff ​belonging to Zion Church, in the biggest crackdown on Chinese Christians since 2018.

The ⁠detentions came after new rules from China’s ⁠top religion regulator banned unauthorized online preaching or religious training by clergy, ‌as well as “foreign collusion.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington hopes to convince Beijing during the talks between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart to play a “more active role” in resolving the Iran war crisis.

Mr. Trump arrived in Beijing last night for a three-day visit during which he is scheduled to have several rounds of talks with Mr. Xi. Mr. Trump was welcomed by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng at the airport, a rare honour that broke with usual diplomatic protocol.

Speaking to Fox News aboard Air Force One on the way to Beijing, Mr. Rubio said the Iran war was a “huge source of instability” and “threatens to destabilise Asia more than any other part of the world because it’s heavily reliant on the straits for energy”.

“It’s in (China’s) interest to resolve this. We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they’re doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf,” he said, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday (May 14, 2026).

When departing for Beijing on Tuesday (May 12, 2026), Mr. Trump told reporters that he planned to have a “long talk” with the Chinese leader about Iran.

But Mr. Trump also said he did not think he needed Mr. Xi’s help with Iran and that the U.S. would “win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise.”

In the Fox News interview, Mr. Rubio described Beijing as Washington’s “top political challenge” but added that “it’s also the most important relationship for us to manage”.

“(China is) a big, powerful country… We’re going to have interests of ours that are going to conflict with interests of theirs, and to avoid wars and maintain peace and stability in the world, we’re going to have to manage those,” he said.

“There are clearly areas where they’re so important for the United States that we’re going to have to raise those issues. And we’ll continue to do so…There might be some areas of cooperation, too, and we want to make sure we don’t walk away from those,” he said.

Mr. Rubio also said the U.S. was “not trying to constrain China, but their rise cannot come at our expense”.

“Their rise cannot come at our fall,” he said.

“When (China’s) plan conflicts with the national interest of the United States, we need to do what’s right for the United States. And that’ll come up on this trip, but more importantly, that’ll be a feature of this relationship for a long time,” he said.