President Donald Trump said Monday that he will travel to Beijing in April and host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit later in the year.
Trump announced the plans after a call with Xi on Monday, which came weeks after a meeting in South Korea at the end of October.
“Our relationship with China is extremely strong!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now we can set our sights on the big picture. To that end, President Xi invited me to visit Beijing in April, which I accepted, and I reciprocated where he will be my guest for a State Visit in the U.S. later in the year.”
The travel plans come after the Trump administration detailed a trade deal framework with China that renewed soybean purchases from China and loosened China’s export restrictions on rare earth minerals, two commitments that are pending full compliance from China.
The call focused on the Russia-Ukraine war, fentanyl and agricultural products like soybeans, a major U.S. export, Trump said.
Trump spoke with Xi for about an hour Monday, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said that “it was a very positive call” that largely focused on a trade deal the United States is working out with China “and those relations and how they are moving in a positive direction.”
Chinese state media said the call centered on Taiwan, which Trump said was not discussed last month at their most recent in-person meeting. Xi told Trump on Monday’s call that “Taiwan’s return to China is an integral part of the post-war international order,” according to Chinese state media.
While he was in South Korea visiting with Xi in October, Trump said that he would head to China in April and that Xi would make a trip “some time after that,” to either Florida or Washington, D.C.
Steve Kopack, Garrett Haake and Caroline Kenny contributed.
