With Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States five days away, U.S. President Donald Trump's concessions keep coming. After a surprise remark suggesting he could allow Chinese automakers to manufacture in the United States, the administration is now reported to be weighing a delay in arms sales to Taiwan. With midterm elections about 40 days off, some analysts say Trump needs diplomatic wins and is keeping a low profile, while others see the moves as a conciliatory gambit to set up the summit.
Trump Weighs Delaying Taiwan Arms Decision
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported on the 19th, citing multiple sources, that the Trump administration is considering pushing a decision on large-scale arms sales to Taiwan to the end of the year ahead of Xi's visit. The sources said the leading option under review is to defer any new Taiwan arms sales decision until after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November and the Group of 20 summit in Florida in December.
U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are a red line that Beijing treats as highly sensitive. A Japanese news outlet recently reported that China had told Washington it would cancel the U.S. visit if the arms sales went ahead. That leaves room to read Trump's move as a step back in light of Beijing's hard line. The SCMP reported that Trump at one point considered delaying a decision as far out as late 2028 or January 2029, two years away, but ran into strong pushback from China hawks.
Trump Says Chinese Carmakers May Build U.S. Plants
About two weeks before the summit, in a Fox News interview on the 11th, Trump said he would be fine with Chinese companies coming into the United States to build auto plants, a comment that drew wide attention. It ran directly counter to a policy line that had kept Chinese cars out of the North American market. His rationale was job creation at home. Trump said the most important thing is that Americans get jobs, adding that Japan also employs Americans by producing cars in the United States. He drew a line, however, saying he could not accept Chinese automakers building plants in Mexico and exporting finished vehicles to the United States. U.S. automakers pushed back strongly right after the remarks, but Trump has not commented further.
Tariffs Postponed, and an Airport Welcome
Separately, observers said the administration is likely to push back an announcement of additional tariffs on major trading partners, originally planned for last week, until after the Washington summit. The original plan was said to include an additional 7.5% tariff on China.
Trump is also reported to be planning to travel to Joint Base Andrews to hold a welcoming ceremony for Xi when the Chinese leader arrives on the 23rd, local time. It would be the first time in Trump's second term that he has greeted a foreign leader at the airport himself. It would also exceed the protocol China extended in May, when Vice President Han Zheng, not Xi, handled the airport reception.
Trump's string of concessions can be read as diplomatic courtesy toward Xi, but analysts also see a deliberate strategy to extract visible results at the negotiating table. The summit agenda is crowded, including an extension of the U.S.-China tariff truce along with rare earths and artificial intelligence safety.
Still, others argue that with the midterms approaching, Trump is giving away more to China because he needs tangible foreign policy wins.
Beijing, for its part, is said to recognize that Washington cannot defer a decision on new arms sales to Taiwan indefinitely. Reuters noted that concerns are spreading that Trump may seek economic gains in exchange for softening U.S. support for Taiwan.
