US Senator Daines to Visit China Ahead of
Trump–Xi Summit Amid Rising Tensions
Republican senator to lead bipartisan delegation to China next week; visit
will begin on May 1, with stops planned in Shanghai and Beijing
·
Bipartisan U.S. Delegation to Visit China
Steve Daines will lead a five-member bipartisan delegation to China
beginning May 1, with stops in Shanghai and Beijing.
·
Visit Comes Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
The trip precedes the planned May 14–15 summit between Donald Trump
and Xi Jinping, seen as a potentially important diplomatic precursor.
·
Focus on Infrastructure and Innovation
Daines said the delegation will study:
o
China’s innovation ecosystem
o
Infrastructure development
o
High-speed rail and industrial capabilities
·
Second China Visit Since Trump Returned
It would be Daines’s second mainland trip since 2025, following meetings last year
with Li Qiang and He Lifeng.
·
Daines Seen as Key U.S.-China Intermediary
Analysts describe Daines as a trusted backchannel figure or “China whisperer” for
Trump, with longstanding ties through business and past trade diplomacy.
·
Possible Summit Groundwork
Some analysts see the visit as helping “test the waters” and smooth political conditions
ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting.
·
Visit Occurs Amid Heightened U.S. Pressure on China
The trip comes as Washington increases pressure on Beijing over:
o
Trade and technology competition
o
AI-related allegations
o
Cybersecurity concerns
o
China-Iran tensions
·
Fresh U.S. Accusations Over AI Technology
The White House recently accused China of industrial-scale theft of U.S. frontier
AI technology, a claim Beijing rejected.
·
Iran Issue Adds Friction
Additional tension followed U.S. allegations that China supplied ammunition to Iran,
which Beijing has denied.
·
Economic Issues May Dominate Summit
Despite broader tensions, indications are the May leaders’ summit may focus primarily
on:
o
Trade imbalance
o
Non-sensitive economic sectors
o Stabilizing bilateral ties
·
Broader Significance
The delegation underscores continued congressional diplomacy even amid strained
U.S.-China relations and could shape the tone heading into the leaders’ summit.
[ABS News Service/24.04.2026]
US President
Donald Trump’s close ally, Senator Steve Daines, will lead a bipartisan delegation
to China next week, according to sources, even as Washington steps up pressure on
Beijing over trade, technological competition, and its ties to Iran, ahead of a
closely watched leaders’ summit on May 14-15.
According to
people familiar who requested anonymity, the five-member delegation led by Daines,
a Republican from Montana, will begin its visit on May 1, with stops in Shanghai
and Beijing.
The trip has
been in the works since last year and was originally scheduled for late March. Trump
and Chinese President Xi Jinping had originally planned to
meet around the same time, but their summit was rescheduled to mid-May due to the
Iran war.
While the full composition of the delegation has not been disclosed,
one source said that several members are expected to be visiting the mainland for
the first time.
Daines’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Last month,
Daines, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said at a public
event that the trip will focus on China’s infrastructure and “innovation ecosystem”
and will include a ride on China’s high-speed rail network.
“One of my
goals for that trip is first, to understand the innovation ecosystem that China
is building out, but second, the infrastructure. So we’ll take the high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing,” Daines said.
Daines added: “Imagine a group of bipartisan senators comparing that
high-speed train to what you get when you’re going from here to New York on Amtrak.”
This would
be his second trip to the mainland since Trump returned to the White House in January
last year, after the Republican lawmaker met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vice-Premier He Lifeng in Beijing in March 2025,
as Trump imposed new, hefty tariffs on Chinese imports and those of other trading
partners.
According to
Xinhua, Daines told He, who has been leading trade negotiations with Washington,
that the US-China relationship was “very important” and the
two sides should strengthen dialogue, and that he was willing to make more practical
contributions in this regard.
Over the last decade, Daines has established himself as a critical
go-between for the Trump administration and Beijing, leveraging his unique background
as a former executive who lived in China for six years while working for Procter
& Gamble.
During Trump’s first term, Daines was involved in efforts to reopen
the Chinese market to American beef, which had been banned since 2003. He was also
a frequent White House consultant during the Phase One trade deal negotiations in
2019-2020, holding high-profile meetings with Chinese officials.
It is not immediately
clear, however, whether the senator’s trip is related to the high-profile summit,
though Congressional delegations have become less common as US-China relations have
deteriorated. But Daines is not seeking a third term in Congress, giving him greater
political latitude in dealing with Beijing.
But Sourabh
Gupta of the Institute for China-America Studies, a think tank in Washington, described
the trip, coming just weeks before Trump himself goes to Beijing to meet President
Xi, as a “positive sign”, saying that Daines is seen as Trump’s “China whisperer”.
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Gupta noted
that in 2023, before former US President Joe Biden met Xi in San Francisco, a
bipartisan delegation, including Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, had travelled to Beijing
to meet the Chinese leader.
“It helped smooth the political pathway for Biden to engage the Chinese
at a time when US-China ties were still troubled,” he said.
It is unclear whether Daines will meet Xi during this trip.
Denis Simon of the Quincy Institute, another think tank in Washington,
argued that Trump will be arriving in Beijing in a “weakened position”, especially
if the Iran war is not over.
“This kind of visit by allies may be designed to flush out an agenda
to see if Trump’s leverage has been reduced,” he said. “I would think he needs some
of his allies to test the waters in Beijing for him.”
However, as the countdown to a Trump-Xi face-to-face begins, Washington
has stepped up pressure on Beijing across a range of issues.
This follows the leaders’ meeting in October, which produced a trade
truce and included US approval for the export of certain advanced AI chips. Since
then, tensions have resurfaced over AI competition, cybersecurity and trade, and,
more recently, over Iran.
US accuses
China of industrial-scale theft of AI technology
On Thursday,
the White House released a memo, accusing China of industrial-scale theft
of AI technology.
“The US government
has information indicating that foreign entities, principally based in China, are
engaged in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to distil US frontier AI systems,”
wrote Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy.
He added that the theft is being committed by “leveraging tens of
thousands of proxy accounts to evade detection and using jailbreaking techniques
to expose proprietary information”.
The Chinese embassy in Washington responded in a statement to the
South China Morning Post, calling it “unjustified suppression of Chinese companies
by the US”.
“China has
always been committed to promoting scientific and technological progress through
cooperation and healthy competition,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu.
On Thursday,
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a Senate committee that
Trump was striking a “delicate balance” with Xi, as the two leaders maintain
a good relationship, when asked about the administration’s decision to allow the
sale of certain advanced chips to China. He also claimed Beijing has not bought
any such chips so far.
Just hours
later, Trump reposted a transcript of a conservative political talk show hosted
by American radio host Michael Savage, in which Savage referred to India, China and other nations as
“hellholes”.
Earlier this
week, Trump suggested that Beijing had sent ammunition to Iran as a “gift”, as US
naval forces moved to block the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to pressure Iran’s
oil industry amid the ongoing conflict. Beijing has denied the allegation.
The Trump administration’s
Department of State, led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the first to hold the role
while previously sanctioned by the Chinese government, has opened its own diplomatic
track.
Separately,
the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs announced on Thursday a reward of up to US$4 million for information leading
to the arrest of Daren Li, who is alleged to have facilitated the laundering of
proceeds from scam operations across Southeast Asia.
According to
court documents, Li, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, has admitted to
conspiring with others to launder funds obtained from victims through cryptocurrency
scams and related fraud.
Against this
backdrop, the upcoming summit may steer clear of such sensitive security issues
and instead focus on more traditional economic and trade matters.
In a separate
congressional hearing on Wednesday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the May summit would
focus on non-sensitive sectors and efforts to address the trade imbalance.