Trump Arrives Beijing for May 14-15 Xi Summit — Taiwan, Trade, Iran on Agenda; PRC Expects Concessions on Arms Sales; Taipei Watches for Any 'Dealmaking' on Security

US President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on May 13, 2026 ahead of the May 14-15 Trump-Xi Jinping summit — the highest-stakes US-China bilateral meeting since the Biden era, with Taiwan, trade, and the Iran war at the center of negotiations. The Washington Post confirmed Trump's arrival for the summit, describing the visit as a defining moment of his second term's Asia strategy. CBS News reported Trump heads into the meeting under intense domestic pressure from Congress not to trade Taiwan's security for trade concessions. Trump has stated he will raise US arms sales to Taiwan and the imprisoned Hong Kong media figure Jimmy Lai as key issues — both of which Xi Jinping views as non-starters for concession. Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu has summed up Taipei's anxiety in a phrase that became the pre-summit's defining quote: 'What we are most afraid of is to put Taiwan on the menu.' AIT Director Raymond Greene and the bipartisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee had both urged Trump to proceed with Taiwan's $14 billion PAC-3 MSE/NASAMS arms package before the summit — but the package remains on formal hold. With the HIMARS payment deadline now 18 days away (May 31) and the $14B PAC-3/NASAMS on hold, Taiwan's defense procurement pipeline is directly at risk based on summit outcomes. Xi Jinping is expected to press Trump on: (1) limiting future US arms sales to Taiwan, (2) opposing formal Taiwan independence, and (3) no senior US official visits to Taipei — consistent with Washington Post, CNBC, and CFR pre-summit analyses published May 11-12.