Beijing serves Trump duck and steak at Xi summit banquet

Roast duck, beef ribs and tiramisu did more than fill plates at the Great Hall of the People. At a state banquet in Beijing on Thursday, May 14, 2026, the menu for Donald Trump and Xi Jinping was choreographed to signal welcome, status and cultural fluency as the two leaders tried to steady a strained relationship.

Beijing roast duck anchored the meal as a nod to China’s national dish, while beef ribs pointed toward Trump’s preference for well-done steak. The rest of the spread mixed Chinese and international flavors with similar calculation: lobster in tomato soup, stewed seasonal vegetables, slow-cooked salmon in mustard sauce and pan-fried pork buns. Dessert moved even closer to American tastes, with tiramisu, fruit, ice cream and a trumpet-shell-shaped pastry.

The hospitality was not limited to the kitchen. The People’s Liberation Army band played “YMCA,” a song closely associated with Trump, adding a layer of theater to an evening meant to project warmth after months of tension between Washington and Beijing. Xi told the banquet that the two countries could “advance the wellbeing of the whole world,” a line that placed the dinner squarely inside the broader effort to reset relations. Trump called the talks “extremely positive” and invited Xi and Peng Liyuan to the White House on September 24, 2026.

The choice of dishes also reflected a long Chinese tradition of using food as diplomatic symbolism. Huaiyang cuisine, with its mild flavors, refined knife-work and seasonal ingredients, has often formed the basis of Chinese state dinners. It has appeared at major occasions including the 1949 founding banquet, the 1999 50th anniversary banquet and a 2002 banquet for George W. Bush.

That culinary diplomacy has surfaced in more modern, less formal moments too, from Janet Yellen’s 2023 reaction to a meal in Yunnan to Joe Biden’s 2011 stop at a Beijing eatery known for fried liver. At the Trump-Xi banquet, Beijing was using a polished table setting to send a harder message: China could honor the visiting president’s tastes while still presenting its own national symbols, its own ceremony and its own power.