Opinion

America holds the advantage as Trump meets Xi in high-stakes summit

Military positioning in the Strait of Hormuz and low trade deficit give Trump new leverage

By Rebecca Grant Fox News

Published May 14, 2026 9:00am EDT

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Trump's China visit: High-stakes summit on trade, Iran and Taiwan

Bill Hemmer reports live from Beijing with Sandra Smith and Aishah Hasnie, joined by Dennis Wilder, to discuss President Donald Trump's two-day high-stakes summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding tariffs, AI and trade. [10:00 AM]

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President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing with a strong hand to play in talks with China’s President Xi Jinping. It’s all due to his military and trade moves over the past 16 months.

Of course, to read the press, you’d think doom awaits. "Xi is confident in his country’s power; Trump is weakened with U.S. mired in war," fretted The Washington Post on Monday, May 11. From New York, the Council on Foreign Relations asserted on Sunday that at the Trump-Xi summit, China will have the upper hand. The general take is that Trump is reeling from the Iran war, while Xi is some sort of mastermind, ready to hop into global leadership. "Xi wants to project China as a more reliable and responsible counterweight to U.S. volatility," as the Post put it.

You’ve got to be kidding me. The reality is that Trump has put America in a much stronger geopolitical position versus China. Last spring, China was yanking export licenses for critical minerals and jeopardizing factory production around the globe. Now, the U.S.........

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