(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump got the pomp he craved during his trip to China. However, the American president ended the meeting practically where he began, receiving little help from his self-described “friend” Xi Jinping in dealing with a complex war in Iran and a challenging domestic political scenario.
The two presidents displayed cordiality and respect during the two-day summit in Beijing. Trump praised China as a beautiful place and called his counterpart a great leader. Xi, in turn, welcomed Trump with military honors, children waving flags, a gift of rose seeds and a toast to his health.
The friendly scenes and demonstration of stability could be the main takeaway from the visit, which took place amid growing concerns about the economic impact of a conflict in the Middle East — which has been fueling global inflation — as well as increasingly public tension over Taiwan. When Trump returned to the US on Friday, the timid set of practical results highlighted the hasty and chaotic planning that preceded the trip, as Trump and his team dealt with the war and a range of domestic issues.
Still, Trump portrayed the trip as a success — and it was, for some. Below is a list of the main early winners and losers:
Winners
Xi Jinping
The Chinese president seemed to want a calm summit, without surprises or controversy, and he achieved it. Trump’s presence in Beijing and his words of praise for the Chinese government guaranteed a propaganda victory for the leader of the Communist Party, reinforced by Trump’s silence in the face of Xi’s statement that the two had established a new “constructive, strategic and stable relationship”.
Xi’s team also managed to surpass the White House in its communication strategy: his statements about Taiwan to Trump, made before the end of the first bilateral meeting, generated journalistic coverage that highlighted Beijing’s position on the autonomous island. Trump told reporters during the flight back on Air Force One that he made no commitments to Xi on Taiwan and would decide soon on a $14 billion arms sale to the island. When Xi asked him whether the US would defend Taiwan in a conflict, Trump said he responded: “I don’t talk about that.”
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Jensen Huang
The Nvidia chief looked like a likely loser earlier in the week when his name was left off the list of executives invited by the White House to accompany the president to Beijing.
But on Wednesday, guess who showed up at the Alaskan airstrip during a refueling stop? Huang himself, who walked towards Air Force One and joined Trump and Elon Musk on the flight to Beijing.
Trump said on Friday that Nvidia’s H200 chips were on the agenda at the meeting and that China had not approved the purchase of the components because it wanted to develop its own. Huang’s proximity to Beijing and his inclusion in the entourage have kept his company on China’s radar as he pushes for greater access to the local market.
Visa
Trump has thrown his support behind the American credit card giant’s push to enter mainland China’s massive payments market. CEO Ryan McInerney was among approximately 30 American corporate leaders in Trump’s entourage, and the US president told Fox News that he personally pressured Xi to open access to a market that had 10.2 billion bank cards in circulation at the end of 2025, with a transaction volume that totaled 963.6 trillion yuan ($142 trillion) last year, according to the People’s Bank of China.
“Visa is a big company. I said, what about using Visa in China? For some reason, they were boycotted, and maybe that will change,” Trump said.
Iran
The war was expected to dominate — if not overshadow — the summit, with US officials saying before arriving in Beijing that they hoped Xi would agree to pressure the Iranian regime for a peace deal, something that has so far proven difficult. Ultimately, Trump publicly celebrated positions that China had already adopted: that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open, that Tehran should not have nuclear weapons and that Beijing would not sell military equipment to Iran.
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Trump said he did not ask Xi for favors but believed he would pressure Iran to reopen the sea route. China could restrict dual-use technologies or pressure Iran behind the scenes. However, Beijing, the main buyer of Iranian oil, did not even mention Iran by name in its public statements about the summit. Trump, for his part, has downplayed one of his own central requests — the recovery of highly enriched uranium — largely calling it a public relations exercise. The status quo could favor Iran, which has resisted Trump’s pressure for a peace deal even as threats of further military action continue after weeks of a shaky ceasefire.
Losers
Taiwan
Trump avoided saying much about Taiwan before his trip to Beijing. Xi, no.
China has struck a new, tougher tone, warning of a potential conflict with the United States, which supplies weapons to the democratic island that China claims as its own territory. The White House statement on the meeting made no mention of Taiwan, although Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said in a TV interview that American policy had not changed.
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Trump said on Friday that he had heard Xi’s position on the issue but remained neutral. “I think the last thing we need right now is a war 9,500 miles away,” he told reporters on the return flight.
Boeing
Planes, planes, planes. The American aerospace giant was at the top of the list of likely winners of the summit, amid speculation that Beijing would place an order for up to 500 new aircraft.
In the end, Trump said they committed to buying 200. He presented the number as a victory, saying Boeing expected 150, but the quantity fell short of expectations created before the meeting, and the company’s shares fell. He later said China promised to buy up to 750 planes if Boeing does a “good job” with the initial order.
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Republicans in Congress
Big agricultural or trade deals could give Trump’s allies breathing room ahead of November’s midterm elections.
However, the pacts put forward by the White House seemed more smoke than fire. Officials have indicated that a plan to reduce tariffs on about $30 billion of Chinese goods from non-strategic sectors will likely require months of administrative work before it is finalized. Trump boasted that Xi had shown interest in buying US oil, but also signaled that no deal had been reached.
And although Jamieson Greer, Trump’s trade representative, has suggested that China will make purchases of agricultural products in the tens of billions of dollars over the next three years, he admitted that the agricultural calendar will mean that some important purchases — such as soybeans — will not be completed until the fall. Futures contracts fell.
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Meanwhile, the deal reopening the Chinese market for American beef comes at a time when domestic beef prices remain a concern for voters.
Trump told reporters that he and Xi did not discuss a possible extension of the tariff truce during their talks.
Secret Service and the Press
Although most of the attention at the summit was focused on the leaders of the world’s largest economies, an unexpected tumult involved the professionals who follow Trump wherever he goes: reporters and Secret Service agents.
On Thursday, in the Great Hall of the People, Chinese journalists invaded the bilateral meeting room between Trump and Xi, trampling on an American official, who left his foot swollen. Later, at the Temple of Heaven, a place visited by Trump as part of the cultural agenda offered by Xi, Chinese authorities barred entry to a Secret Service agent who accompanied reporters because he was armed.
Later, while the two leaders visited the monument, Chinese officials herded the press into a nearby building and did not allow them to leave. The journalists and their American companions ended up forcing their way out to try to catch up with Trump’s departing motorcade, running past Chinese officials trying to restrain them. The incident generated heavy coverage in the American media, threatening to overshadow other parts of the trip.
Trump, who is often critical of the press, told reporters he had spoken with Xi about Jimmy Lai, the founder of the former Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February on charges of collusion and sedition. The president, who has called for Lai’s release, said Xi responded that achieving this would be “something difficult.”
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