Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night for a two-day visit that both the United States and China hope will stabilise their relationship and prolong a truce in the trade war that began over tariffs last year.

The state visit – with all the pomp and ceremony that entails – had been scheduled for April but was deferred because of the war in Iran.

There is a lot on the table and, in the shorthand favoured by analysts, they are: the three Ts (Taiwan and Tehran and trade) and the three Bs (beans, Boeing and beef).

On day one, Trump flattered Xi Jinping but was that reciprocated? And what about the two superpower’s key interests outside trade and tariffs: Trump wants China to help open the Strait of Hormuz; Xi considers Taiwan as the most important issue in the relationship between China and the United States?

Is the fact that the meeting happened at all the real win for the two countries following a period of fraught relations.

Irish Times China correspondent Denis Staunton is in Beijing.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

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