AFP, Beijing

Beijing said yesterday it was ready to work with the United States in pursuit of “more stability” and confirmed that Donald Trump will visit China this week, the first US president to do so since 2017.

Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over key issues ranging from trade tariffs to the Middle East war and Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Top trade negotiators from both countries will meet in Seoul a day before Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to iron out details on trade and economic issues, a sign of the trip’s high stakes.

The White House announced Trump’s visit several weeks ago, and China’s foreign ministry has now confirmed it will go ahead from Wednesday until Friday.

The US leader was originally meant to visit in late March or early April, but postponed his trip to focus on the US-Israel war with Iran.

“Top-level diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-US relations,” Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news briefing.

“China is willing to work with the United States in the spirit of equality, respect, and mutual benefit, to expand cooperation, manage differences, and inject more stability and certainty into a volatile and intertwined world,” he said.

This is the first visit by a US president to China since Trump’s previous visit in 2017, and is expected to include a tour of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and a lavish state banquet.

The White House has said it is of “tremendous symbolic significance”, and promised that Trump will “deliver more good deals” for Americans.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will set up the visit during talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Seoul on Wednesday.