Xi Courts Global Leaders and Business Titans Ahead of Trump Talks

Xi Jinping has used a burst of tightly managed meetings in Beijing to project something more than diplomatic activity: a portrait of a leader who prefers control, selective access and carefully staged messages. In mid-April, Xi held at least five high-profile tête-à-têtes in the capital, the fastest such pace since July 2024, even though China was not hosting a formal summit that week.

The pattern is visible in the people Xi has chosen to see. On December 10, 2024, he gathered the heads of major international economic organizations at the Great Hall of the People, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, World Trade Organization and New Development Bank. Xi described the world as standing at a “critical crossroads” and called for multilateralism, cooperation and a “just world of common development,” language aimed as much at signaling steadiness as at policy content.

He also moved to reassure China’s private sector after years of pressure on technology giants. On February 17, 2025, Xi met leading Chinese business figures in Beijing, including Jack Ma, in a rare display of public warmth toward the country’s entrepreneurs. The attendance list reportedly included executives tied to Alibaba, Huawei, Xiaomi, BYD, Tencent and CATL. Analysts read the gathering as a possible “fresh start” for the private sector and a bid to revive tech-driven growth as domestic demand weakened and U.S.-China tensions stayed high.

That style matters because it offers clues to how Xi may handle Donald Trump. The two leaders met on October 30, 2025, in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the APEC summit, and agreed to unwind several punishing trade measures. Under the deal, the United States agreed to cut tariffs on China by 10 percentage points, pause a so-called 50 percent rule on subsidiaries of blacklisted Chinese firms and postpone a probe into China’s shipbuilding and maritime industries. China agreed to delay rare-earth export controls for one year, resume soybean purchases at prior levels and curb precursor chemicals tied to fentanyl production.

Trump said afterward that he would visit Beijing in April 2026, but the trip is now scheduled for May 14-15, 2026. Reuters-linked reporting said the delay was tied to the Iran war. Xi’s recent diplomacy suggests he is preparing for that meeting the same way he has handled other high-stakes encounters: by limiting surprises, drawing in favored interlocutors and presenting China as the calmer great power in a more volatile world.