US President Trump to pay state visit to China from May 13 to 15

Beijing, May 11 (PTI) US President Donald Trump will pay an official visit to China from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Monday.
     This will be the first visit to China by a US president in almost nine years.
     The visit comes in midst of a prolonged US-Israel-Iran war, crisis over the blockade of Strait of Hormuz causing global energy crisis and the increasing tensions between the two countries over a host of issues, including Taiwan.
     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 tremendous symbolic significance”.
     According to Kelly, the US leader will attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
     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.
     Both sides announced on Sunday that Vice-Premier He Lifeng will travel to South Korea for trade talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on May 12 and 13 in the final round of negotiations before Trump’s visit.
     Trump’s visit is also taking place amid expectations of a trade deal over tariffs between the top two economies clamped by the US president.
     The talks would be “guided by the important consensus” reached between the two heads of state at their meeting in Busan, South Korea and in previous phone calls and address “economic and trade issues of mutual concern”, a Chinese commerce ministry statement said.

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