Donald Trump described his state visit to China this Friday as “a tremendous success” and “a historic moment”, as he descended from Air Force One at the White House.
"All I can say is that it was a great success... We made significant agreements. We made major business deals... A lot has happened and you will learn about them, but it was a tremendous success. I truly believe it was a historic moment," declared the U.S. president about his trip, which took place from May 13 to 15.
The visit was the first by a sitting U.S. president to China in nearly nine years, since Barack Obama's visit in 2017, and it was part of the consolidation of the trade truce established at the Busan summit on October 30, 2025, where Trump and Xi Jinping met face to face for the first time in six years on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
The central focus of the agenda was the bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People on Thursday, a session lasting approximately two hours followed by a State banquet.
Trump also revealed that he visited Xi's private residence in Zhongnanhai, access rarely granted to foreign leaders: "I went to the place where he lives... We had lunch together," he stated.
Among the commercial announcements, China's commitment to purchase more than 200 Boeing aircraft stood out, with the possibility of reaching 750 planes if the initial deliveries are satisfactory.
The commercial representative Jamieson Greer also announced that China committed to agricultural purchases of "double-digit billions" annually for three years, including soybeans, energy, and medical devices.
However, the markets reacted with skepticism: soybean futures fell by more than 36 cents per bushel after the summit due to a lack of concrete details, and outlets like NBC News reported that Trump returned "with very few clear victories."
Trump formally invited Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan to visit the United States on September 24, 2026, and described the bilateral relationship as something that "will be better than ever."
The relationship with Cuba also loomed over the visit. China urged Washington to lift the embargo and sanctions against the island, and upon returning to the White House, a journalist directly questioned Trump on the matter, receiving no detailed response.
Days before traveling to Beijing, Trump had posted on Truth Social: "Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!" and before the press he declared: "Cuba is not doing well. It is a failed nation, and we will talk about Cuba at the right time."
The Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against Cuba since January 2026, including an executive order from May 1 that enforces secondary sanctions against foreign entities doing business with the island, and direct sanctions against the regime's business conglomerate GAESA, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 7.
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