President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to meet in Beijing this week for a high-stakes summit that could shape the next stage of rivalry between the world’s two major powers.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi are expected to discuss the war in Iran, trade, Taiwan and other points of contention during a two-day summit beginning on Thursday. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a bruising trade war in which the U.S. imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing threatened to throttle the global supply of rare earths.
The visit this week could determine whether an uneasy détente that has emerged since that meeting will hold.
A lot has changed since the two leaders last met. Mr. Trump is now embroiled in a war with Iran, China’s closest partner in the Middle East, that has led to a global energy crisis and diverted U.S. military assets from Asia. The war has also depleted U.S. munitions, raising doubts among some Chinese analysts about the United States’ ability to defend Taiwan, a close partner of Washington.
Mr. Xi faces his own challenges as he grapples with slower economic growth, higher energy prices and the possibility of a global recession that would hurt China’s export-reliant economy.
