From May 13 to 15, 2026, former US President Donald Trump paid a state visit to China for the first time in 9 years. His entourage included not only core US government officials, but also a "corporate delegation" composed of 17 heavyweight figures from the US business community, including NVIDIA, Apple, Boeing, and Qualcomm, covering key fields such as technology, finance, aviation, and agriculture. This visit came at a time when China-US trade was in a "fragile truce" phase, serving as an important test of bilateral economic and trade relations and injecting new variables into the future direction of China-US trade. Its impact is reflected in multiple dimensions, including short-term easing of the atmosphere, mid-term cooperation implementation, and long-term dispute management.

One of the core values of Trump's visit to China is to break the previous tense deadlock in China-US trade, effectively alleviate market concerns about the escalation of bilateral trade frictions, and reshape the stable expectations for corporate investment and market transactions. Economic and trade relations have always been the "ballast stone" of China-US relations, and during this visit, both China and the US demonstrated their willingness to manage differences and engage in pragmatic cooperation, a positive signal that was quickly transmitted to the global market.

From a market perspective, Trump's move to lead heads of large enterprises to visit China itself conveys the importance attached by the US government and business community to the Chinese market. According to the "American Business in China" white paper released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China in April, most surveyed US companies achieved positive financial performance in 2025, more than half of the companies still listed China as one of their top three priority investment destinations globally, and 74% of the companies believed that they received equal or even better treatment in China than local enterprises. The accompanying "corporate delegation" further confirms the US enterprises' re-evaluation of the actual interests of the Chinese market and allows the market to see the resilience of China-US economic and trade cooperation.

In addition, on the eve of the visit, He Lifeng, China's lead person for China-US economic and trade affairs and Vice Premier of the State Council, held economic and trade consultations with his US counterpart, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in South Korea, forming a compact arrangement of "consultations before the visit" and laying the foundation for the economic and trade achievements of this head-of-state meeting. The normalization of such high-level interactions has effectively reduced the uncertainty risks such as unilateral trade restrictions and the escalation of tariff barriers, allowing Chinese and US enterprises to put aside short-term concerns and plan their investment and cooperation layouts more calmly.

This visit was not merely a diplomatic interaction, but also had a distinct pragmatic orientation towards economic and trade. Cooperation between the two sides in multiple fields is expected to be gradually implemented, promoting the transformation of China-US trade from "friction and game" to "limited cooperation", which is specifically reflected in three major fields.

First, cooperation in the agricultural and energy fields is expected to achieve a breakthrough. From the perspective of US domestic political needs, Trump's visit to China is closely related to the midterm elections to be held in November this year. Restoring export orders of agricultural products to China is of great significance for consolidating support from "agricultural states." Jim Sutter, CEO of the US Soybean Export Council, stated that only China-US cooperation can achieve win-win results. At the same time, China also hopes to appropriately expand imports of agricultural products and energy to ease the long-standing trade surplus. The convergence of interests between the two sides in this field is expected to promote the implementation of relevant orders and the deepening of cooperation.

Second, cooperation in aviation, technology and other fields will be further expanded. The accompanying heads of enterprises such as the President of Boeing and the CEO of NVIDIA represent the core strength of the US in high-end manufacturing and technology fields. Boeing orders are not only related to corporate profits, but also to US manufacturing jobs. If Trump can promote China to re-expand its purchases of Boeing aircraft, it will become an important achievement for him to demonstrate to the domestic audience; in fields such as artificial intelligence and chip applications, there is still certain cooperation space between China and the US. China is not only a consumer market, but also has become an important technological partner. Cooperation between the two sides in non-cutting-edge core technology fields is expected to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Third, bilateral economic and trade mechanisms are expected to be gradually restarted and improved. It is generally believed that during this visit, the two sides may form a new agreement framework around trade, investment and other issues, and even discuss the establishment of an investment committee and a trade committee. China has also clearly stated that it is willing to work with the US to continuously lengthen the cooperation list, reduce the problem list, and promote the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-US economic and trade relations. Such institutionalized communication will provide a more stable guarantee for China-US trade cooperation and reduce the impact of short-term policy fluctuations.

It should be made clear that the easing and cooperation brought about by Trump's visit to China is a pragmatic choice based on the realistic interests of both sides, which has not fundamentally changed the long-term differences in China-US trade. In the future, bilateral trade will still show a trend of "cooperation in competition and game in cooperation".

From the perspective of US policy orientation, its positioning of China as an important competitor is difficult to fundamentally change in the long term. In cutting-edge core technology fields such as high-end chips and artificial intelligence, the US and its allies will still maintain strict restrictions, and the possibility of breakthrough technological cooperation is low. Chen Fengying, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, pointed out that cooperation between China and the US is mainly concentrated at the market level, and high-end technology still needs to rely on China's independent research and development. In addition, the US still retains some tariff barriers under the "Section 232" and "Section 301" provisions, and the abolition or reduction of these tariffs still requires long-term consultations between the two sides to reach a consensus.

From the perspective of the trade pattern, the structure of China-US trade has undergone profound changes in recent years. Data from the US Wall Street Journal shows that China's share in US imports has dropped from 22% in 2017 to about 14% in 2023, and ASEAN has surpassed the US to become China's largest trading partner. This is the result of supply chain adjustments driven by the "trade war". This change in the pattern means that China-US trade is no longer deeply bound by "interdependence", but is gradually shifting to a new model of "respective expansion and mutual cooperation".

However, it is worth affirming that both sides have gradually realized that "completely cutting off key supply chains" will be costly, and are trying to find a new interaction model: maintaining limited cooperation in competition. The accompanying "corporate delegation" on this visit reflects the US government and business community's recognition that "isolation and decoupling are absolutely not the way out". China's door to opening up will only open wider, which also provides broad cooperation prospects for US enterprises. In the future, the core of China-US trade will be "managing differences and focusing on cooperation", expanding common interests in fields such as agricultural products, energy, finance, and general technological applications, and maintaining competitive balance in high-end technology fields, forming a long-term pattern of "fighting without breaking and achieving mutual benefit and win-win results".

The impact of Trump's visit to China on China-US trade is multi-dimensional and multi-level: in the short term, it has effectively eased trade tensions and stabilized market expectations; in the mid-term, it has promoted the implementation of pragmatic cooperation in multiple fields and improved the bilateral economic and trade communication mechanism; in the long term, although differences remain, both sides have formed a consensus of "cooperation in competition", laying the foundation for the long-term stable development of China-US trade.

The significance of this visit is not to return China-US trade to the previous "honeymoon period," but to promote the two sides to shift from "uncontrolled friction" to "rational management and control," and from "decoupling tendency" to "limited cooperation." As the two most important economies in the world, the stability of China-US bilateral trade is not only related to the well-being of the people of the two countries, but also affects the stability and development of the Asian-Pacific region and even the world economy. In the future, with the normalization of high-level interactions between the two sides and the continuous improvement of economic and trade mechanisms, China-US trade is expected to find consensus in differences and achieve win-win results in cooperation. However, this process still requires both sides to uphold the principles of mutual respect and equality and mutual benefit, properly handle various trade frictions, and promote the steady and long-term development of bilateral economic and trade relations.