6 key takeaways from historic Trump-Xi China summit

President Trump wrapped up his whirlwind three-day trip to China after tea and lunch with Xi Jinping early Friday morning, Eastern time. The commander-in-chief and his Chinese counterpart discussed a wide range of pressing issues over the course of the historic summit, aimed at shoring up relations between Washington and Beijing and opening up the communist country to American businesses. Here are the top takeaways from Trump’s trip.

 Xi raised the issue of Taiwan with Trump right out of the gate, but the president has thus far refused to budge on changing the long-standing US policy toward the self-governing, democratic island that China claims as its own.“President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning wrote on X Wednesday.“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability.

Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.“‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water.” Mao’s statement concluded with a quote from the meeting attributed to Xi: “Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the US.”Since the late 1970s, the US “One China” policy has acknowledged Beijing’s claim to the island and avoided directly advocating for Taiwanese sovereignty.In an interview with “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted Xi’s protests had no effect.“US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here today,” he said.“It was raised.

They always raise it on their side.We always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics.”The two heads of state appeared to have found common ground on Iran – with Xi even offering to assist Trump ...