Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
May 15, 2026
President Xi. Well, today I am hosting the President and his officials in the Zhongnanhai compound for tea. This is the place where party and the central government leaders of China work and live, including myself.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the leadership have moved to this compound, including the Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and so on.
I have chosen this place especially to reciprocate the hospitality extended to me in 2017 at Mar-a-Lago.
President Trump. That's right.
President Xi. While this place used to be part of the imperial garden, there is a lot of history around this compound. On our way in, we stayed to look at some of the old trees. One of them is 419 years old. In other places within this compound, there are trees that have lived to be over a thousand years old.
The President was interested to learn all about that, including the Chinese roses, which we looked at. And I've agreed to send the seeds for these roses to the President as a gift.
President Trump. I love that. That's great. That's great.
I want to thank you very much. This has been an incredible visit. I think a lot of—a lot of good has come of it. We've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries.
He's a man I respect greatly. Become, really, a friend. We've known each other now 11 years, almost 12 years. That's a long time. And we've settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn't have been able to settle. And the relationship is a very strong one. We've really done some wonderful things, I believe.
We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar on Iran. We want that to end, and we don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the Straits opened. We're closing it now. I mean, they closed it; then we closed it on top of them.
But we want the Straits opened, and we want them to get it ended because it's a crazy thing. They're a little bit crazy. And that's no good. Can't have it. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.
But we discussed a lot of other things also, and I think we're very much on agreement. We're going to have some further discussions now with the group.
But I just want to thank President Xi and all of his representatives. They're—we've become friendly with all of them. Great people. And it's an honor to be here, and we'll be back.
And I believe on September 24, or thereabouts, President Xi is going to be coming to the United States. And we will be reciprocal, like reciprocal trade. The visit will be reciprocal. We're going to lay it on the line, and we're going to have—you're going to—you're going to walk away, I hope—hopefully very impressed, like I'm very impressed with China.
And I just want to end by saying thank you very much. It's been really a great couple of days.
Thank you very much.
President Xi. Thank you for those words.
President Trump. Thank you. Thank you.
[At this point, President Xi spoke in Chinese; no translation was provided. Reporters were then ushered out.]
NOTE: The President spoke in the morning at the Zhongnanhai government complex. In his remarks, President Xi referred to former President Hu Jintao of China. President Xi spoke in Chinese, and his remarks were translated by an interpreter.
Categories: Meetings With Foreign Leaders and International Officials : China, President Xi. Locations: Beijing, China
Names: Xi Jinping.
Subjects: China, President; China, President Trump's visit; China, relations with U.S.; China, trade with U.S.; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, nuclear weapons development.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600342.