Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed US President Donald Trump with a handshake on Thursday in Beijing for a superpower summit on thorny issues including Iran, trade and Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Xi greeted Trump at the opulent Great Hall of the People at just past 10:00am (0200 GMT), a grand reception that belies the deep tensions between the world\u2019s biggest economies.<\/p>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Accompanied by Trump, Xi shook hands with several US officials, including Pentagon Peter Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was known throughout his career as a fierce opponent of Beijing.<\/p>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Trump and Xi stood in the centre as a Chinese military band played The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em> and then the Chinese national anthem as cannons fired.<\/p>\n Jumping schoolchildren in brightly coloured outfits waving US and Chinese flags chanted \u201cwelcome, welcome\u201d as Trump and Xi walked past them in the square.<\/p>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The two leaders will also enjoy a state banquet at the hall in the evening, and Trump will visit the historic Temple of Heaven, a World Heritage site where China\u2019s emperors once prayed for a good harvest.<\/p>\n The US president arrived for the two-day summit on Air Force One late on Wednesday accompanied by top CEOs, including Nvidia\u2019s Jensen Huang and Tesla\u2019s Elon Musk \u2014 symbols of business deals Trump hopes to reach.<\/p>\n The trip to Beijing marks the first by a US president in nearly a decade, after Trump visited in 2017, accompanied \u2014 unlike this time \u2014 by his wife Melania.<\/p>\n Top of Trump\u2019s wish list will be business deals on agriculture, aircraft and other topics, with a host of top businessmen in the US leader\u2019s delegation.<\/p>\n Aboard Air Force One en route to Beijing, Trump vowed on social media to push Xi to \u201copen up\u201d China to US firms \u201cso that these brilliant people can work their magic\u201d.<\/p>\n But Trump is dealing with a different and more emboldened China to the one he visited nine years ago, with a host of unresolved trade and geopolitical tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n The Iran war in particular has threatened to weaken Trump\u2019s position in talks with Xi, having already forced him to postpone it from March.<\/p>\n The US president said he expected a \u201clong talk\u201d with Xi about Iran, which sells most of its US-sanctioned oil to China, but insisted that \u201cI don\u2019t think we need any help with Iran\u201d from Beijing.<\/p>\n US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a somewhat different tone.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u2018Big hug\u2019<\/h2>\n