Global Times: US President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Wednesday local time, said he will visit China from May 14-15, and the White House also announced the dates, according to media reports.
Trump said in his post that US representatives are “finalizing preparations for these Historic Visits.”
Trump previously said he was going to visit China in late March and early April, but in mid-March announced a postponement of the visit.
A Chinese analyst told the Global Times on Thursday that the US side’s mindset of rescheduling of the visit reflects high expectations for the China trip.
As of press time, the Global Times has yet to see any response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry regarding the US president’s announcement of a new date for his visit to China.
At a March 18 press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, when asked about Trump’s remarks on a “delay” of visit to China, said head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance to bilateral relations. “China and the US will continue to maintain communication on President Trump’s visit to China,” Lin noted.
A Reuters report said that Trump’s effort to reschedule the trip reflected the Republican president’s eagerness to project confidence in a challenging Middle East war and simultaneously to manage a tense relationship between the world’s biggest economies.
The US side’s mindset in rescheduling the visit reflects high expectations for the trip, in the hope that it will deliver tangible gains, and also reflects the belief that the conflict with Iran can end quickly on terms favorable to the US— a belief that still remains inherently uncertain, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday.
During Wednesday’s news briefing, White House spokesperson Leavitt faced questions about whether the announced new dates for the trip symbolized that the war in Iran might be coming to a close, Al Jazeera reported. Asked if the new schedule for Trump’s China trip means that the US expects the war will be wound down by mid-May, Leavitt said, “We’ve always estimated approximately four to six weeks, so you could do the math on that,” according to CNBC.
The fact that the US has set a definite time frame for the visit this time indicates that the Trump administration is highly optimistic about China-US cooperation and achieving more productive outcomes, Li said, adding that the strengthening, stabilization, and improvement of the foundation of China-US relations is a result welcomed by both sides.
Trump visited China in 2017 during his first term in office, the most recent trip to China by a US president, according to Al Jazeera.
