Trump China visit LIVE updates: US president to meet with Xi Jinping in Beijing amid background of Iran war

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China. I’m Tom Housden, and I’ll be helming the coverage of this major news event today. Stay with us as we bring you the latest on this.

Here’s what we know so far:

• Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are meeting on Thursday in Beijing for a US-China summit, to discuss issues including the Iran war, trade, technology and Taiwan.
• Trump arrived in Beijing late on Wednesday, greeted by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and other dignitaries at the city’s Capital International Airport.
• Xi is set to officially the US president during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, followed by bilateral talks.
• The official proceedings include a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a banquet in the evening.
• Xi will host Trump for another round of talks at Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership compound, on Friday morning before the US president departs later that day.
• Trump’s state visit to China – the first by a US president in almost a decade – comes saddled with the baggage of the Iran war.

• A high-powered delegation of American business leaders will accompany Trump to China, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Larry Fink, David Solomon and Kelly Ortberg.

When US President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping this week, it will be a geopolitical heavyweight match-up with enormous stakes, according to Joe Biden’s former deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell.

On the table is everything from global trade to security.

And, at a time when Trump is arguably at his weakest, and Xi at his most paranoid.

This masthead’s international and political editor Peter Hartcher speaks with The Morning Edition host Samantha Selinger-Morris on whether Trump may inadvertently lead the United States into unilateral concessions and unintentional appeasement, and what this might mean for the rest of us.

The last time Donald Trump met Xi Jinping – in South Korea in October – he referred to the encounter as a “G2 meeting”. That language didn’t go unnoticed, and hasn’t been forgotten.

Some foreign policy analysts – who pay a lot more attention to words than the US president, it must be said – often ascribe to Trump a sphere-of-influence philosophy on geopolitics. By that, they mean that he sees the world as being dominated by great powers (and strong men) who have the right to control their region.

No more so than the US and China – the world’s two largest economies, and the two great geostrategic rivals of our time. Any meeting of their two leaders is therefore consequential for the world at large.

For middle powers such as Australia, a “G2” world where the important decisions are made in Washington and Beijing would be disadvantageous. Canberra benefits from a stable relationship between the US and China, but still wants a seat at the table.

Read North America correspondent Michael Koziol’s analysis here.