The White House said on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s talks with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping produced agreements on trade policy, energy, and the Iran crisis.
The White House said Trump and Xi had a “good” meeting, in which they discussed “ways to enhance economic cooperation between our two countries, including expanding market access for American business into China and increasing Chinese investment into our industries.”
“Leaders from many of the United States’ largest companies joined a portion of the meeting,” the readout added.
The White House said Trump and Xi also “highlighted the need to build on progress in ending the flow of fentanyl precursors into the United States” and “increasing Chinese purchases of American agricultural products.”
Xi further “expressed interest in purchasing more American oil” to reduce China’s dependence on the Middle East and vulnerable choke points like the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently closed due to Iranian terrorism.
On the subject of Iran, the White House said Xi “made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use,” and agreed with the United States that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
China’s readout of the meeting had one major difference with the U.S. version: it dwelled at length on the issue of Taiwan, which the White House did not mention at all.
“President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” said the Chinese statement on the meeting.
“Taiwan independence and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water. Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the U.S.,” the Chinese readout added.
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Thursday, Trump said Xi promised not to provide military support to Iran.
“We discussed it. I mean when you say support, they’re not fighting a war with us or anything. He said he’s not gonna give military equipment. That’s a big statement,” Trump told Hannity.
“But at the same time, he said they buy a lot of their oil there, and they’d like to keep doing that,” the president added.
Trump also told Hannity that Xi offered to help with securing the Strait of Hormuz and resolving the Iran crisis.
“President Xi would like to see a deal made. He would like to see a deal made. And he did offer. He said, ‘If I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help,’” Trump said, noting China’s obvious interest in restoring the free flow of goods and oil through the strait.
On the other hand, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said American arms sales to Taiwan “did not feature prominently in today’s discussion,” contrary to China’s readout of the meeting.
“We have sold [Taiwan] weapons in the past. That’s existed as recently as December, which they [China] were very upset about. And that’s a decision that the president gets to make as Congress appropriates, and as Congress decides what to do,” Rubio said.
“U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today, and as of the meeting we had here today. It was raised, they always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position, and we move on to the other topics,” he said.
Trump said he was pleased with Xi’s commitments to purchase oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and other energy products from the U.S., along with goods such as soybeans and Boeing jets.
China was buying about 4.15 million tons of LNG a year, and 193,000 barrels of oil per day, from the United States before the 2025 trade war when China imposed import tariffs on those energy products. Chinese imports of U.S. oil halted entirely in May 2025.
The two energy products China has continued to buy in great quantities from the U.S. are ethane and propane. The U.S. is China’s largest supplier of propane, and its only supplier of ethane, which is used for making plastics.
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