BEIJING/WASHINGTON--A summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping this month is unlikely to create room for even a limited reset of business and investment ties, five people briefed on preparations said.
American business leaders at this stage have not secured the CEO delegation some had sought. On the other side, there is no indication Beijing is on track for the investment protections it has sought on behalf of Chinese companies.
Washington and Beijing are looking to maintain the stability that has characterised relations between the world's two largest economies since late last year after a bruising period marked by Trump’s tariffs and China’s chokehold on rare earths exports. But some U.S. companies had also held out hope Trump’s visit could go further than a green light for the deals on Chinese purchases of soybeans and Boeing aircraft, already under consideration.
Overshadowing the summit - the first Trump-Xi meeting since they agreed on the trade truce in October - has been Chinese frustration with the Trump administration's last-minute planning for an event that normally takes months of painstaking preparations, three people with knowledge of the arrangements told Reuters.Uncertainties, besides clearance for Chinese investment, include the thorny issue of Trump's tariffs and whether he will be joined by the kind of high-profile business delegation that the leaders of Canada, Britain and Germany recently brought to China on their state visits.
"This feels like an ever-shrinking state visit. The ambition for what this trip will accomplish seems to be getting smaller by the day," said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution.
The White House, Treasury Department, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and China's commerce and foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment on prospects for the summit.
Trump is to visit China from March 31 to April 2, a U.S. official told Reuters last month. China has not confirmed the trip, but its top diplomat said on Sunday the agenda for the exchange was "on the table".
"What is required is for both sides to make thorough preparations to create a conducive environment to manage existing differences," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing.
Washington only began working-level interagency planning meetings for the trip recently, leaving little time for a state visit that Beijing expects to be highly choreographed, two sources said.U.S. officials view the visit as one of four potential Trump-Xi summits this year. A meeting in Paris this week between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will focus on possible deliverables for the Beijing meeting, a person with knowledge of the evolving preparations said.
Trump's ambassador to Beijing, David Perdue, is pushing for a CEO delegation, and U.S. officials in China have made tentative outreach to companies, two sources said.But USTR, which has been driving Washington's summit agenda with Treasury, has been reluctant to bring CEOs, three sources said, to keep the focus on "managed trade".
