Trump hopes to get a lot out of summit meet with Xi in China

Washington, May 11 (PTI) Ahead of his visit to China, US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he hopes to get “a lot” out of his meeting with President Xi Jinping.
    The US President said that he had a “great relationship” with Xi, and noted that there had been no ships from Iran to China, despite the country’s reliance on Iranian oil.
    “I have a great relationship with President Xi. We're doing a lot of business, but it's smart business,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about his hopes for the outcome of his visit to Beijing from May 13-15.
    The two countries are also hoping to stabilise trade relations after the tit-for-tat sanctions last year. 
    A large business delegation of US CEOs is also expected to join Trump on his visit to Beijing.
    US media reported that the White House has invited top CEOs, including Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Larry Fink (BlackRock), and Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), to join Trump on his trip to China this week.
    Also expected to join Trump’s delegation for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping are Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Cargill’s Brian Sikes, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Cisco’s Chuck Robbins, Coherent’s Jim Anderson, GE Aerospace’s H Lawrence Culp Jr, Goldman Sachs’s
David Solomon, Illumina’s Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard’s Michael Miebach, Meta Platforms executive Dina Powell McCormick, Micron Technology’s Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon and Visa’s Ryan McInerney.
    “We're making a lot of money with China. I have a great relationship with President Xi. And I think you can see that with the fact that Hormuz, they get a big percentage, 40 per cent of their oil from Hormuz,” Trump said.
    “No ships coming in. Nasty ships coming in that we had been skirmishes with. He'd like to see it get done. He (Xi) doesn't want to see it. I'll tell you what, look, I respect him a lot. And hopefully he respects me,” Trump said.
    On Sunday, US Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said Trump would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening for what she described as a visit of symbolic significance.
    According to Kelly, the US leader will attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with President Xi on Thursday, followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet.
    The two leaders will meet again on Friday for a bilateral tea and working lunch, she said, adding that the US planned to host the Chinese leader for a reciprocal visit later this year.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)