BEIJING — Though U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping “discussed almost everything,” their superpower summit here this week produced no sweeping agreements and concluded with just a handful of measurable outcomes.

Instead, each side lavished praise upon its counterpart and appeared to count the level-setting as an important step toward stabilizing the relationship.

“Neither side moved on the issues that matter most,” Craig Singleton, the China program senior director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a statement. “Technology, Taiwan, Iran, rare earths, and supply-chain dependence remain unresolved. The summit helped manage the moment, but the underlying contest now returns to the same pressure points.”

Among those pressure points is Taiwan, with Xi warning of “clashes and even conflicts” with the United States over the issue if not handled “properly.” While not new, the force of Beijing’s warnings showed how sensitive the issue has become for China, with Xi framing it as the most important issue in U.S.-China relations, according to a Chinese readout of the meeting.

Taiwan was not mentioned in Washington’s readout, however.

Trump later told reporters that he discussed arms sales to Taiwan “in great detail” with Xi and would make a decision about a long-delayed $14 billion package “shortly.”

Trump’s repeated comments about discussing those arms sales with Xi have alarmed Taiwan supporters, with some experts saying that would violate longstanding U.S. policy prohibiting such consultations.

He said he declined to answer when Xi asked whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily, in keeping with another longstanding U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity,” but that “the last thing we need right now is war 9,500 miles away.”

For China, the talks highlighted another pressing question of whether the status quo on trade with Washington could hold after the two sides struck a truce last year.

One thing they didn’t discuss, Trump said, was a reduction in tariffs.

The ongoing war with Iran, for whom China remains an important partner, loomed over the visit, and Trump said he will make a decision over the next few days on whether to lift sanctions on Chinese oil companies that buy Iranian oil.

Separately, he reiterated his maximalist view of the negotiations on Iran, telling Fox News that failure to come to the table on a nuclear agreement would result in “annihilation.”

On Friday, the two-day summit concluded with commitments announced by Trump for purchases of 200 Boeing aircraft, with a tentative promise that the order could be even higher if it goes well.

He said they also made a deal for China to buy “billions of dollars” of soybeans.

Washington’s readout said that Xi had voiced interest in purchasing American oil, a development that, if realized, would reduce Beijing’s appetite for Iranian oil and deal a potential economic blow to Tehran, as China is the primary buyer of Iranian oil.

Still, Trump acknowledged to Fox News, “They buy a lot of their oil there, and they’d like to keep doing that.” (Source: NBC News)

Story Date: May 18, 2026