Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned his US counterpart Donald Trump that mishandling the Taiwan question could push bilateral ties into “a very dangerous situation”, on the opening day of a two-day Beijing summit that has left the European Union watching from the margins.
Speaking from the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square on May 14, 2026, Xi has told Trump that “Taiwan independence and peace in the Taiwan Strait are incompatible.”
Improper handling of the dispute, the Chinese leader has said, would generate “frictions and even conflicts” between the world’s two largest economies, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Xi has described Taiwan as “the most important issue” in China-US relations, while tempering his remarks by adding that maintaining peace and stability in the Strait was “the greatest common denominator” between Washington and Beijing.
The two presidents have held a closed-door session lasting roughly two hours and 15 minutes – their longest direct exchange since their October 2025 meeting in Busan, South Korea.
It is also the first visit to China by a sitting US president since Trump’s 2017 trip. A further encounter is scheduled for Friday at Zhongnanhai, the seat of the Chinese Government, where the two leaders will hold a working lunch before Trump closes the visit, as Brussels Signal reported on Wednesday.
TRADE TRUCE AT STAKE
The meeting has unfolded under the shadow of the Busan trade truce, which suspended heightened reciprocal tariffs until November 10, 2026, after Washington and Beijing briefly jacked up duties on each other’s goods to more than 100 per cent last year.
Xi has insisted the essence of the commercial relationship “is mutual benefit and cooperation”, arguing that trade wars have “no winners”. He pointed to recent talks between the two sides’ economic teams as having produced “a generally balanced and positive outcome”.
Trump, for his part, has predicted “a fantastic future” with Beijing and described Xi as “a great leader”, surrounding himself with what he called “the 30 best” business executives.
The US delegation has included Tesla chief Elon Musk, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and outgoing Apple boss Tim Cook, alongside Boeing, BlackRock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Mastercard, Meta and Qualcomm executives. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng have held parallel consultations in South Korea designed to prepare the ground for the leaders’ encounter.
EUROPE WATCHES FROM THE MARGINS
For Brussels, the Beijing meeting is less an opportunity than a worry.
European officials fear any “managed trade” arrangement between Washington and Beijing could sideline the European Union, leaving member states to absorb the fallout.
A central concern is Chinese dominance of rare earth supplies – critical minerals used in electric vehicles, semiconductors, green technology and defence systems. Beijing’s October 2025 export curbs on rare earths, since partly suspended under the Busan truce, exposed how dependent European industry remains on Chinese supply chains.
Industrial competition is the other headache. Chinese electric vehicles are between 25 and 50 per cent cheaper to produce than European models, according to analysts. A Chinese compact SUV such as the MG4 starts at around €30,000, while comparable European cars such as the Volkswagen ID.3 begin at about €40,000.
European producers fear that if Trump strikes a deal absorbing Chinese overcapacities in electric cars, batteries and industrial goods into the US market in exchange for concessions, those goods could simply be redirected to Europe at prices its industries cannot match.
THE IRAN AND UKRAINE FILES
Trade has not been the only file on the table. Trump is understood to have pressed Xi to use Beijing’s influence with Tehran to help end the US-Israeli war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which much of global oil shipping passes.
The strategic waterway remains closed by Iran, with the US Navy maintaining a perimeter blockade of Iranian ports, as Brussels Signal noted in its preview of the summit. The conflict has triggered an energy crunch with serious implications for European economies.
The Ukraine war has also featured in the discussions, although Chinese state media has offered few details. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Beijing shortly after Trump’s departure, underlining the diplomatic balancing act Xi is attempting.
Trump is also expected to raise the case of jailed Hong Kong opposition figure Jimmy Lai, whose release he has said he will request. Beijing, which describes Lai as the “principal instigator” of the 2019 protests in the territory, has so far shown no sign of relenting.
A SUMMIT OF MANAGED RIVALRY
The European Union Institute for Security Studies has cautioned that Trump and Xi are unlikely to strike a grand bargain in Beijing. The summit will instead, the institute has argued in a commentary published this week, centre on managing rivalry, preserving fragile trade and technology truces, and containing geopolitical tensions that could further destabilise the global economy.
For the EU, that may be the least bad outcome. A collapse of the Busan truce would, the institute has warned, send further shockwaves through the global economy and worsen shortages of critical minerals already squeezing European industry.
For Taipei, the chief fear is that Trump might subtly soften Washington’s longstanding stance from a position of not supporting Taiwanese independence to one of actively opposing it. Such a shift would amount to “the most destabilising outcome” of the summit, Bonnie Glaser of the German Marshall Fund has warned.
