China's ambassador lists four red lines for Trump-Xi meeting

Climate expected to be absent from US meeting

China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, published an article on Wednesday outlining “four red lines” for this week’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Taiwan was listed first on the ambassador’s list and democracy and human rights second, the Guardian reported. It is Xi’s first state visit to the United States in more than a decade.

The Guardian reported that Trump has overhauled the world order and recalibrated the US-China relationship, and that Trump is contending with a China that is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago.

On democracy and human rights, the Guardian reported that Beijing has found in Trump a US president less interested than any of his predecessors in lecturing China about its human rights record. In 2015, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, called Xi “shameless” for hosting a UN summit on women while “persecuting feminists” at home, and President Barack Obama skipped Xi’s session. Trump is unlikely to echo such sentiments, even though some in his inner circle — most notably Secretary of State Marco Rubio — are sharply critical of China’s policies.

Trump may nonetheless raise individual cases. In May, he raised the case of Ezra Jin, a detained Christian pastor, which the Guardian reported seemed to contribute to Jin’s release from prison weeks later. Yufang Rong, the wife of a US nuclear scientist imprisoned in China since late 2024, said this week that the White House had assured her that Trump would ask Xi to free her husband. Trump may also raise the case of Min Zin, a US expert on Myanmar who was arrested in China in June.

The Guardian described Jimmy Lai’s case as the most difficult and high-profile. Lai, a British pro-democracy activist, was jailed in Hong Kong on national security charges. Despite promising to secure Lai’s release during his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump conceded in May that Beijing was unwilling to budge on Lai’s case, calling it “a tough one.”

Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory, has become an increasingly sensitive topic for Beijing, the Guardian reported. The Guardian reported that China wants to isolate Taiwan on the world stage and put pressure on the US to reduce its support for Taiwan’s defences, both of which would make it easier for it to annex the island. After the May Xi-Trump summit, Trump agreed to delay a $14bn package of weapons sales to Taiwan, calling it “very good negotiating chip.” Beijing rejects the idea of bargaining over Taiwan, describing it as a domestic Chinese issue. William Yang, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said “the Chinese side definitely feels that Trump is a rare US president that might offer a rare window of opportunity for them to influence American policy on Taiwan, specifically on defence support.”

Although AI was surprisingly absent from talks the last time Xi and Trump met, in Beijing in May, it is expected to be high on the agenda this week. The Guardian reported calls for the two leaders to agree on some form of AI safety framework to prevent the technology — about which there have been dire warnings in recent weeks — from spinning out of human control. Trump has called warnings about safety a “hoax,” while Xi has called for “safety and security in AI development.” China sees AI as the key to unlocking its own national potential and bristles at US efforts to contain its progress, the Guardian reported.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently suggested that the two countries establish a mechanism to communicate on major AI safety issues. Xi and Trump may discuss further details. Amanda Hsiao, the China director at the Eurasia Group, questioned whether previous coordination mechanisms had proven effective: “The question that’s going to raise is just how is it going to be operationalised, and will it be effective. Because the US and China have had a long history of having crisis hotlines, and they haven’t always been effective.”

Trade remains the biggest thorn in the US-China relationship, the Guardian reported. When Trump launched a global trade war last year, with China as the biggest target, the Guardian reported that the move risked bringing the world economy to its knees. China reciprocated with tariffs on US goods approaching 150 percent and unveiled other retaliatory measures, most notably restricting the export of rare earths vital to US manufacturing. A temporary truce in the trade war and Trump’s war in Iran have since stabilized the trading relationship, the Guardian reported, with the source of global economic pain coming from the Middle East rather than China. The truce is set to expire in November. With Trump and Xi expected to meet two further times this year, the Guardian reported, a trade deal may not be announced at this week’s summit. China has weathered the trade war better than expected, with exports to other countries booming, but finding a longer-term agreement to restore the flow of goods to its largest market remains a high priority for Beijing, the Guardian reported.

Notably absent from this week’s talks will be any meaningful discussion about the climate crisis. The Guardian reported that tackling the climate emergency used to be described as one of the few areas where the US and China could meaningfully cooperate, with China’s strides in decarbonising its economy seen as an area where it could show leadership on US-endorsed goals. Yang said: “The climate conversation is just not really a topic that Trump is interested in talking about.” Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris agreement, and Beijing and Washington are too divided on a host of other issues to talk about climate cooperation. “They are coming into this summit with very little agreement or consensus in common,” Yang said.

The leaders may also discuss conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, but China has been unwilling to get meaningfully involved in peace negotiations, the Guardian reported.

The last time Xi was hosted in the United States was in 2015, when Obama welcomed him in Washington for talks on cybercrime, technology, the climate crisis and human rights. The state dinner featured singer Ne-Yo serenading Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with Peng reportedly singing along.

Additional research by Yu-chen Li.