source : AAP

US President Donald Trump is heading into a series of meetings ‌with China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing, aiming to secure economic wins, maintain a fragile trade truce and navigate thorny issues such as the Iran war and arms sales to Taiwan.

With his approval ratings ‌badly dented by his war in Iran, Trump’s hotly anticipated trip to China – the first by a US president to America’s main strategic rival since his last visit there in 2017 – has taken on added significance.

Joining him ‌on the trip is a group of chief executives including Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, a late addition who boarded Air Force One during a refuelling stop in Alaska en route to the Chinese capital at Trump’s request.

Many of those executives, including Huang and Musk, are seeking to resolve issues with China, and Trump has said he will urge Xi to “open up” China to US business.

But the power dynamic has shifted since Trump’s last visit in 2017 when China went out of its way to lavish Trump and buy billions in US goods, said Ali Wyne, senior advisor for US-China relations at International Crisis ‌Group.

Back then “China was trying ‌to persuade the United States ⁠of its growing status … This time around it’s the United States, unprompted, of its own volition, that is acknowledging that status,” Wyne said, pointing ​out Trump revived the term ‘G2’, referring to a superpower duo, when he last met Xi on the sidelines of an APEC meeting in South Korea in October.

This week’s meetings will provide plenty of face time between the leaders: they are scheduled to hold talks at The Great Hall of the People, tour the UNESCO heritage site Temple of Heaven and attend a state banquet on Thursday, before taking tea and lunch together on Friday, according to the White House.