Trump’s Beijing trip pressure

President Donald Trump is set to go to Beijing on May 14 and 15 for talks with Xi Jinping, the White House said, putting trade policy at the center of his first China trip of his second term. (cnbc.com) The visit was pushed back about six weeks from a late-March or early-April window after the White House said the Iran war disrupted the schedule. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Beijing, and Xi and Peng Liyuan are expected to make a reciprocal visit to Washington later in 2026. (cnbc.com) Reuters reported on April 21 that Trump’s advisers want deliverables on market access for U.S. manufacturers, even as critics inside and outside government say Washington’s leverage has weakened after a year of zigzagging decisions on tariffs, blacklists, and chip controls. White House spokesman Kush Desai told Reuters that Trump has “flipped the script” and is operating from “a position of strength.” (usnews.com) The pressure point is no longer just tariffs. Congress’s research service said China sells the United States more than four times what it buys, leaving Beijing with fewer imports to tariff and more reason to use export controls, canceled orders, and market restrictions instead. (congress.gov) That shift has been visible in the tariff numbers. The Congressional Research Service said two-way average tariff rates peaked in mid-April 2025 at about 164% on U.S. imports from China and 146% on Chinese imports from the United States, then fell after both sides cut some “reciprocal tariffs”; as of February 20, 2026, the averages were about 34% and 31%. (congress.gov) At the same time, China has built a broader export-control system around choke points in minerals, magnets, and industrial inputs. The International Institute for Strategic Studies said Beijing shifted over the second half of 2024 and early 2025 from symbolic measures to active export controls aimed mainly at the United States. (iiss.org) Reuters found in February that Chinese enforcement had spread well beyond headline rare-earth restrictions. Its review of more than 200 public compliance inquiries showed only 43 were posted from 2019 through 2024, but 135 appeared in 2025 alone after tighter controls, with exporters asking whether items as varied as pill boxes, motor parts, and gallium nitride chips needed licenses. (usnews.com) U.S. officials are still describing China as a major barrier to American exports. The Office of the United States Trade Representative said on March 31 that its 2026 National Trade Estimate details “significant foreign trade barriers” facing U.S. exports and said the administration would keep using tariffs and negotiated deals to open markets. (ustr.gov) Outside economists say the trade damage has already been large. Peterson Institute economist Chad Bown wrote in March that U.S. goods exports to China in 2025 were 26% lower than in 2024, after China “essentially stopped buying” U.S. exports in April 2025 during the last tariff escalation. (piie.com) Beijing has also tightened the legal backdrop for foreign companies operating in China. New State Council regulations released on April 7 allow Chinese authorities to retaliate against foreign measures deemed to threaten China’s industrial and supply chains, including by restricting imports, exports, services, or technology. (china-briefing.com) That leaves the May 14-15 meeting as a test of whether Trump can turn a tariff fight into concrete access for U.S. producers while China keeps adding tools that reach far beyond customs duties. The trip is scheduled; the harder question is what either side is still willing to give up. (cnbc.com)