Trump and Xi to meet in Beijing with Iran war, trade, AI and Taiwan on agenda

In short: The US and China plan a summit in Beijing on May 14-15, 2026, with talks expected to cover the Iran war, trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan.

What happened

President Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for a meeting with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, on May 14-15, 2026. Reports say the agenda will include the war in Iran, trade tensions, fast-growing AI spending, and Taiwan’s status.

One major reason is energy. Fighting around Iran has pushed up prices for oil and other fuels, and it has raised shipping and insurance costs. This matters to Asian economies that rely on imported energy, including places that make many of the world’s computer chips, like Taiwan and South Korea.

AI is also expected to be part of the talks because it depends on two things that are getting more expensive, electricity and chips. Training and running AI systems can require large data centers (warehouses full of computers), which use a lot of power. If energy stays tight, it can raise costs across the AI supply chain, from chip factories to the data centers that run AI services.

Taiwan is likely to come up as well, both because it is central to chip production and because it remains a major security issue between Washington and Beijing. Analysts say expectations are modest, since the biggest disagreements are long-standing and hard to solve quickly.

Why it matters

Even if you never follow foreign policy, these topics can affect everyday prices and product availability. If energy and shipping stay expensive, goods that rely on chips and large-scale computing, like phones, cars, and online services, can become pricier or slower to deliver.

Source: NYTimes