BEIJING, China (AFP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he had made “fantastic trade deals” with China’s Xi Jinping, as the pair ended a superpower summit that according to the US leader has also reaped a Chinese offer to help open the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal accords in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas — not least the Middle East war.
“We’ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,” he said after a walk with Xi among the rosebushes in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing’s Forbidden City.
Trump did not spell out on Friday the trade agreements that he said had been sealed with China.
However, in a Fox News interview, Trump said one big business deal struck involved Xi agreeing to purchase “200 big” Boeing jets.
The US president also said Beijing had also voiced interest in buying US oil and soybeans.
No announcements were made regarding the advanced Nvidia chips used in artificial intelligence, even though CEO Jensen Huang was among business leaders in Trump’s business delegation.
Xi said it was a “milestone visit,” and that the two sides had to date established “a new bilateral relationship, which is a relationship of constructive strategic stability.”
He promised to send Trump seeds for the White House Rose Garden.
In the Fox interview after the first day of the summit wrapped, Trump said Xi had agreed to several US wishlist points.
On the topic of the war in Iran, the US president said Xi had effectively assured his counterpart that China was not preparing to militarily aid Tehran, which has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz.
“He said he’s not going to give military equipment... he said that strongly,” Trump told Fox.
“He’d like to see the Hormuz Strait open, and said ‘if I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help,’” Trump added.
The warm handshakes and pomp on Thursday were somewhat overshadowed by a blunt warning from Xi on a much longer standing geopolitical flashpoint, Taiwan.
Shortly after talks started, Chinese state media reported Xi had told Trump that missteps on the sensitive issue of Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.”