The Situation Room - May 13th

Good morning everyone,

I’m Atlas, and welcome to The Situation Room! We cover the most high impact geopolitical developments every Wednesday!

Today’s topics:

• Trump Prepares To Meet Xi In Beijing

• Starmer Fights For His Political Life

• Putin Hails Test Of New ‘Satan II’ ICBM

Trump Prepares To Meet Xi In Beijing

_{By: Atlas}

Donald Trump flew out of Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday afternoon for a three-day summit with Xi Jinping, the first visit to Beijing by a sitting U.S. president in nearly a decade. The trip was originally scheduled for earlier this year and was pushed back by the Iran war.

Air Force One is set to land Wednesday evening. Thursday's agenda opens with a welcome ceremony and morning bilateral, followed by an afternoon walk through the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet. The two leaders meet again Friday for tea and a working lunch before Trump flies home.

"We're going to have a very good meeting," Trump told reporters before boarding. He said the agenda would include "a long talk" about Iran.

The traveling party includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Eric Trump and Lara Trump. Melania Trump is not on the trip.

Iran War at the Top of the Agenda

The war Washington and Israel opened on February 28 has dominated the run-up to the summit. China is Iran's largest oil customer and has refused to honor U.S. secondary sanctions on that trade.

The Treasury Department on Monday added 12 individuals and entities to its sanctions list — including several in Hong Kong — accusing them of moving Iranian crude into China. Hengli, China's largest independent refiner, is among the firms hit. Three Chinese companies have also been sanctioned for selling satellite imagery to Iran during the war.

Beijing has answered with policy of its own. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Tuesday repeated that China "firmly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions," and officials recently ordered five domestic refineries to ignore U.S. measures on Iranian oil under a 2021 blocking statute.

Trump played down the gap with Xi. "I don't think we need any help with Iran. We'll win it one way or the other. We'll win it peacefully or otherwise," he said. He still plans to ask Xi to lean on Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran shut at the start of the conflict.

The Five B's and a Business Delegation

U.S. officials have boiled the trade agenda down to five items they call the "Five B's": Boeing, beef, beans, a Board of Trade and a Board of Investment. Beijing is working a parallel three-item list — tariffs, technology and Taiwan.

The two sides are operating under the one-year tariff truce reached at the October summit in Busan. Before that truce, China's import tax on U.S. goods stood at 125 percent and Trump's tariff on Chinese-made products at 145 percent. A senior administration official said Washington is going to Beijing seeking purchase commitments worth tens of billions of dollars.

Agriculture is a central piece of that ask. China bought roughly $24 billion in U.S. farm goods in 2024, the largest single market for American producers, before Beijing froze much of that trade. Soybean farmers are watching for confirmation of last year's commitment to take 25 million metric tons annually through 2028 — a number that matters in farm states ahead of the November midterms.

Roughly 16 corporate executives are flying with Trump: Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Apple's Tim Cook, Boeing's Kelly Ortberg, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman, Goldman Sachs's David Solomon, Citi's Jane Fraser, Cargill's Brian Sikes, Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon, Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra, Mastercard's Michael Miebach, Visa's Ryan McInerney, GE Aerospace's H. Lawrence Culp, Coherent's Jim Anderson, Illumina's Jacob Thaysen and Meta's Dina Powell McCormick.

Taiwan, Arms Sales and Semiconductors

Trump signaled on Monday that he would raise U.S. arms sales to Taiwan with Xi, breaking with the longstanding American line that Washington does not negotiate that question with Beijing. In December, his administration approved an $11 billion arms package for the island, the largest ever.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office staked out its position on Wednesday. "Our resolve to oppose Taiwan independence is as firm as a rock, and our capability to crush Taiwan independence is unbreakable," spokesman Zhang Han said. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, called the island "a sovereign, independent nation" that would not bow to pressure.

Asked whether Beijing might invade, Trump pointed to his rapport with Xi. "I think we'll be fine. I have a very good relationship with President Xi. He knows I don't want that to happen," he said.

Technology will run alongside Taiwan. Beijing wants U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors loosened. Washington is bringing concerns about artificial intelligence policy, fentanyl precursors and Chinese activity in the South China Sea.

Human Rights Cases on the Table

Trump told reporters Monday that he will raise two human rights cases directly with Xi. The first is Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong publisher imprisoned for more than five years and sentenced earlier this year under Hong Kong's national security law. The second is pastor Ezra Jin Mingri of Zion Church in Beijing, arrested in 2025 over his religious activities.

Neither side is going into the summit promising a breakthrough. Most of the focus is on whether the Busan tariff truce gets extended and whether narrower deals on aircraft, agriculture and investment come out of the two days of meetings.

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