China is once again facing uncertainty over preparations for a high-level meeting with US President Donald Trump, with less than six weeks remaining before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to Washington, according to the South China Morning Post. The trip would be Xi’s first state visit to the United States since 2015, but Chinese officials are reportedly unsettled by what they regard as disorganisation and a lack of coordination within the Trump administration.
Sources familiar with the preparations told the South China Morning Post that little progress had been made on establishing concrete deliverables for the summit. One person with knowledge of the planning said no US official or agency had so far assumed responsibility for organising the visit, leaving officials on both sides largely engaged in routine preparations without clear leadership.
The situation echoes preparations for Trump’s earlier trip to Beijing, when the Treasury Department and US Trade Representative played central roles. This time, however, the State Department has remained largely uninvolved, according to the sources. A recent Washington visit by China’s foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu briefly improved the atmosphere, but that momentum was not sustained. The official Chinese read-out said Ma held in-depth exchanges with senior US officials.
Two people familiar with the Chinese side’s thinking said the difficulties appeared to be operational, logistical and related to optics. Neither side, they suggested, had high expectations of achieving anything substantive from the September summit. The only concrete item being discussed is a roughly US$30 billion tariff reduction for Chinese goods as a targeted concession.
Beijing is particularly sensitive to the arrangements because the White House will largely control the protocol, venue and public messaging. This would give China less ability to manage the optics of the meeting or limit unexpected developments. Sources attributed the slow planning to internal discussions within Trump’s inner circle, where disagreements reportedly remain over the tone and framing of the visit.
White House advisers including Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung are pushing Trump to project superiority, while others expect the US president to ease tensions with Xi. All sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly.
Trump previously floated September 24 as the date for Xi’s White House visit, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated last month that the visit remained on track. The meeting comes as the world’s two largest economies seek to stabilise relations following their May summit in Beijing, where Xi and Trump agreed to build what they called a constructive relationship of strategic stability.
That stabilisation has since faced renewed pressure. Washington last month added dozens of Chinese companies to its Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act entity list and banned the import and sale of new foreign-made robotic devices and power inverters, sectors in which China is a global leader. Beijing responded by sanctioning seven US entities and tightening export controls on drones and related technology.
US officials have presented the September summit as one of up to four possible meetings between the two leaders this year and an opportunity to stabilise relations and advance cooperation. Yet the May summit produced few concrete outcomes, and Chinese officials are reportedly frustrated by the limited progress so far. One source told the South China Morning Post: “There’s not much happening in terms of planning on deliverables.”
The US-China Board of Investment, identified as a key outcome of the May talks, is also unlikely to feature among the September deliverables because neither side has yet initiated the consultation process, the South China Morning Post reported this week.
Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser on US-China relations at the International Crisis Group, said Chinese officials might be concerned because Xi was meeting Trump at a “sensitive juncture” in the US president’s term.
“The United States is bogged down in a war with Iran that is increasingly unpopular with his base, and the Republican Party is bracing for a painful midterm election cycle in just under three months,” Wyne said.
“Trump bristles at the perception that he is losing control of events at home and abroad, and Xi’s advisers may fear that, in an attempt to restore US leverage vis-a-vis China, he will consider making a surprise policy announcement that catches Xi off guard on Trump’s home turf.”
