U.S. President Donald Trump left Beijing on May 15 after a highly staged two-day visit that produced few concrete policy wins despite lavish hospitality and repeated public praise for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Trump hailed the trip as “an incredible visit” and said “a lot of good has come of it” after meetings at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound, but markets and analysts found the outcomes underwhelming.
Beijing used the summit to press its own priorities, issuing a blunt foreign ministry statement condemning the conflict in the Middle East and urging a halt to the war with Iran. “This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to continue,” the statement said, and Beijing signalled support for diplomatic efforts to reach a peace deal it says has severely affected energy supplies and the global economy. Trump told reporters he and Xi had discussed Iran and felt “very similar,” though Chinese officials did not elaborate.
Talks touched on security in the Gulf: a White House summary said the leaders shared a desire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil route, and suggested Xi was interested in U.S. oil purchases as Beijing seeks to diversify supplies. But analysts warned there was no Chinese commitment to act on Iran. “What’s notable is that there’s no Chinese commitment to do anything specific with regards to Iran,” said Patricia Kim, a Brookings Institution fellow.
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The economic takeaways were limited. U.S. officials said mechanisms were advanced to manage future trade and both sides would identify about $30 billion in non-sensitive goods for purchase, but details were scarce. Trump announced China had agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets—its first purchase of U.S. commercial aircraft in nearly a decade—but that fell well short of market expectations of roughly 500 planes and sent Boeing shares down more than 4%. There was also no breakthrough on selling Nvidia’s advanced H200 AI chips to China despite the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, making a last-minute appearance on the trip.
The summit did, however, preserve a fragile truce in the U.S.-China relationship that the leaders struck in October, when Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs and Xi stepped back from restricting rare earths supplies. Whether that truce will be extended beyond its expiry later this year remains undecided, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg as he accompanied the president. “An extension would be the most basic benchmark” for measuring the summit’s success, Kim said.
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Tensions over Taiwan surfaced sharply in private talks. Xi warned that mishandling the democratically governed island could lead to conflict, a stark reminder of a long-standing flashpoint in the relationship. Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, and Taiwan’s foreign minister Lin Chia-lung thanked the United States for its repeated expressions of support. Despite the warm public scenes—state banquets, grand receptions and private garden tours—analysts concluded the visit offered strategic reassurance without substantial new leverage for Washington or Beijing.
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