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ISLAMABAD: Donald Trump is set to become the first US president to visit China in nearly a decade, with tensions over Iran, rare earths, and trade expected to dominate his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.&nbsp; The long-anticipated May 14-15 summit comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions, with the Middle East conflict rattling global energy markets. Despite the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, AFP reported that Trump&rsquo;s visit is expected to happen, with an advance US team already in Beijing.&nbsp; &quot;What we are not looking for is massive confrontation or anything like that&quot; with China, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last month, adding that &quot;the United States economic and trade relationship with China is stable and US President Donald Trump will aim to keep it that way in the meeting.&quot; Pressure on Iran&nbsp;CNBC reported that the Iran war is likely to take centre stage at the summit, leaving less scope to resolve issues like tariffs and rare earth supplies. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already said that Iran will be a topic in the meetings. AFP says Christopher Padilla of advisory firm Brunswick expects Trump &quot;would like China to continue pushing Iran to make a deal.&quot; Both sides will likely discuss China&#39;s oil purchases from Iran, Greer told Bloomberg Television this week. &quot;The topic of Iran will be hard to avoid in the Trump-Xi meeting,&quot; experts said, although they added this was &quot;not a domain China is eager to engage deeply on&quot;, AFP reported. &quot;The reality is that right now, Iran is critical for the US, and the Chinese know that,&quot; said Edgard Kagan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Lizzi Lee at the Asia Society Policy Institute said Washington was already &quot;raising pre-summit pressure on China by targeting its economic ties with Tehran&quot;.&nbsp; However, analysts said China was unlikely to accept pressure from Washington over Iran or Russia. &quot;China may have some influence but not decisive control,&quot; AFP quoted Yue Su from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), adding Beijing would seek to avoid &quot;additional complications&quot; such as fresh tariffs linked to its trade with Iran. Rare earths&nbsp;China dominates the global rare earths industry and remains one of Beijing&rsquo;s strongest bargaining tools. Washington has a strong interest in encouraging China to keep rare earth exports open, Wuttke said, especially as it needs supplies for the development and replenishment of weapons. &quot;Trump appears focused on preserving this truce and using the time to build insulation against dependence on China for key inputs,&quot; Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution said. Trump has shown that he &quot;cares a lot about&quot; rare earths, said Joe Mazur, a geopolitics analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China. &#39;Board of Trade&#39; and tariff truceUS officials are also expected to push Chinese purchases in sectors such as agriculture, aircraft, and energy.&nbsp; Padilla said Washington was looking to establish a &ldquo;Board of Trade&rdquo; mechanism that could formalize future purchasing agreements in non-sensitive sectors such as consumer electronics. Trump warned last month he would impose a 50% tariff on Chinese goods if Beijing provided military assistance to Iran.&nbsp; China is meanwhile expected to seek an extension of the one-year trade truce agreed by Trump and Xi during their October meeting in South Korea after a tariff war that saw US duties on some Chinese goods rise to 145%.&nbsp; Conditions have shifted since. While some tariffs linked to fentanyl supply chains remain in place, the Trump administration has also launched new investigations that could lead to new duties. What does China want?&nbsp;Beyond diplomatic niceties and behind closed doors, Beijing will be looking for small, concrete achievements, analysts said, but will stay &quot;realistically pragmatic&quot; given Trump&#39;s unpredictable nature. China wants a broad reset in ties but knows this would be unlikely, said Benjamin Ho from Singapore&#39;s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. &quot;What China needs is for Trump to follow through on his promise to engage, with at least a few concrete outcomes discussed at the highest level,&quot; said Yue Su. Beijing will be satisfied with &quot;targeted&quot; results such as limited tariff reductions that would justify a measured rollback of its own tariffs or export restrictions, she said.

This combination of pictures created on March 16, 2026, shows (L) China's President Xi Jinping, and (R) US President Donald Trump (AFP).

Asia

Americas

The summit comes amid rising geopolitical tensions, with both sides aiming to navigate disputes over Tehran, rare earths, and tariffs; US officials are also expected to push Chinese purchases in sectors such as agriculture, aircraft, and energy. 

Trump-Xi summit to focus on Iran, tariffs and rare earths

BEIJING/MOSCOW: Russian leader Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow&#39;s economic, political, and security ties with Beijing as a &quot;stabilizing&quot; factor in turbulent times globally, in a video call with China&#39;s Xi Jinping on Wednesday. &quot;Amid growing turbulence, the foreign policy alliance between Moscow and Beijing remains an important stabilising factor,&quot; Putin told Xi in a video broadcast on Russian state TV.&nbsp; Xi was holding the call with Putin via a video link from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The call comes days after top diplomats from both countries agreed bilateral relations could &ldquo;break new ground&rdquo; this year as <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/britains-starmer-hails-good-progress-after-meeting-chinas-xi" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Beijing</a>&nbsp;and Moscow seek to ramp up economic cooperation. &lsquo;Close exchanges&rsquo;Their strategic partnership has grown closer since Russia&#39;s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The two leaders, who are regularly in contact, exchanged New Year greetings on Dec. 31, in which Xi expressed &quot;readiness to continue maintaining close exchanges&quot; with Putin, according to China&#39;s foreign ministry. They last met in person in September when the Russian leader attended Beijing&#39;s massive military parade. &lsquo;Unprecedented level&rsquo;During the visit, Putin told Xi during talks that their countries&#39; ties were at an &ldquo;unprecedented level&rdquo;. Putin and a slew of world leaders had visited the port city of Tianjin before that to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit - a forum that China sees as an alternative to Western-dominated international cooperation. Xi also visited Moscow last year, in May, for Russia&#39;s celebrations of the World War II defeat of the Nazis. The two chatted while they watched tanks and missiles roll across Red Square during Russia&rsquo;s flagship Victory Day Parade.

'Amid growing turbulence, the foreign policy alliance between Moscow and Beijing remains an important stabilising factor,' Putin told Xi in a video broadcast on Russian state TV. 

Putin tells Xi Moscow-Beijing alliance 'stabilizing' for world

BEIJING: Amanda Anisimova brushed off a second-set stumble to beat Linda Noskova 6-0 2-6 6-2 in the China Open final on Sunday, winning her second WTA 1000 title.&nbsp;World number four Anisimova picked precise angles to bounce the ball near the sidelines and frustrate Noskova, blanking the 20-year-old in just 23 minutes.&nbsp;Czech Noskova, unfazed by the bagel in her first WTA 1000 final, got a break in the first game of the second set, before saving two break points with an ace and powerful backhands to take a decisive 4-2 lead against the American.&nbsp;However, Anisimova, runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open this year, prevailed with superior speed in the third set, winning four straight games against an exhausted Noskova to secure her fourth career WTA title.

Tennis

Amanda Anisimova won the China Open by beating Linda Noskova 6-0, 2-6, 6-2. It’s her second WTA 1000 title and fourth career title.

US Open finalist Anisimova beats Noskova to win Beijing title

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BEIJING: French Open winner Coco Gauff was forced to go the distance against Leylah Fernandez before closing out a tight three-setter 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 on Sunday to advance to the third round at the China Open. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The defending champion and a firm crowd favorite in Beijing overcame a second-set stumble and then struggled to serve out the match in the third, before breaking Fernandez in the 12th game of the deciding set to clinch it. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gauff will next face No. 16 Belinda Bencic or Australian Priscilla Hon in the WTA 1000-series tournament. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In earlier matches on Sunday, Eva Lys beat No. 10 Elena Rybakina 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, and American McCartney Kessler was leading Barbora Krejcikova 1-6, 7-5, 3-0 when the Czech player retired from the match. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The tournament is being held concurrently with an ATP 500 men&rsquo;s tournament. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A day after becoming the latest tennis star to make an apology to Chinese fans, Lorenzo Musetti had a less eventful straight-sets victory over tour veteran Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3 in a second-round match. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earlier, Learner Tien beat Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2 to set up a meeting with ninth-ranked Musetti in the quarterfinals. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Third-ranked Alexander Zverev plays Corentin Moutet of France in a night match later Sunday.

Coco Gauff advanced to the China Open third round after defeating Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 on Sunday, advancing to the third round after a three-set battle in Beijing.

Articles tagged with "Beijing"

Trump-Xi summit to focus on Iran, tariffs and rare earths

Putin tells Xi Moscow-Beijing alliance 'stabilizing' for world

US Open finalist Anisimova beats Noskova to win Beijing title

Gauff battles past Leylah Fernandez to reach China Open third round