President Donald Trump is expected to visit Beijing from March 31 to April 2 for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. It will mark the first meeting between the two leaders since they agreed to a trade truce last October that ended months of escalating tensions prompted by tariffs imposed by the United States and Chinese restrictions on rare earth exports.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Paris later this week to explore possible outcomes that could be announced during the Beijing summit. Planning for such a major summit usually takes place over several months, and is getting underway quite late, causing many observers to question whether anything meaningful can be achieved.

In the meantime, the US is distracted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between Iran and a US-Israel coalition. To discuss the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, we're joined today by Dr. Da Wei. He is director of the Center for International Security and Strategy and professor of International Relations at Qinghua University.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction
[01:40] The Status of US-China Relations
[03:07] Middle East War Impact on the Bilateral Relationship
[05:36] Rethinking the US Decline in Chinese Foreign Policy
[08:23] Chinese and US Sources of Leverage
[13:01] Beijing’s Goals for the Trump-Xi Summit
[19:52] New Language for Taiwan
[30:12] Expanding Chinese Investment in the US?
[32:03] Potential for US-China Cooperation on Iran?
[35:54] Implications of Military Officer Purges

What to Expect from the Trump-Xi Summit: A Conversation with Dr. Da Wei