Beijing confirms official US presidential visit scheduled for mid-May

US President Donald Trump will pay an official visit to China from May 13 to 15, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump will pay a state visit to China from May 13 to 15,” the ministry said in an official statement.

The United States and China have been locked in an escalating trade and technology conflict since 2018, which has recently intensified again with renewed tariff battles, export controls, and retaliatory economic measures affecting global supply chains.

A major point of friction has been US restrictions on advanced technologies, especially AI chips and semiconductors, which Washington views as critical to limiting China’s military and technological expansion, while Beijing sees them as economic containment.

In parallel, geopolitical tensions have sharpened over Taiwan and the South China Sea, where the US continues military cooperation with regional allies while China increases military presence and strategic infrastructure expansion.

More recently, tensions have also been shaped by Middle East instability and the Iran conflict, where both countries accuse each other of indirect involvement or strategic alignment with opposing sides, adding a new layer of distrust to already strained relations.

By Jeyhun Aghazada