The Big Picture

President Donald Trump flew into Beijing on Wednesday for a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He left Friday aboard Air Force One claiming a massive win.

The reality is more complicated.

Trump called the talks "very successful." Xi called it a "historic and landmark" visit. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed Xi will visit the White House in September. According to BBC News, neither side announced significant trade breakthroughs or major business deals beyond one notable exception.

The One Concrete Deal

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that China agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets, with a potential commitment for an additional 750 planes. Boeing confirmed the deal, according to BBC News.

The numbers are real and worth billions of dollars.

Everything else is murky at best.

The Tariff Confusion

Trump said the two sides addressed trade and that deals were struck. China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday that the two countries hit a preliminary agreement to reduce some tariffs, according to the New York Times — seemingly contradicting Trump's own statements, which were vague on specifics.

So China is saying tariffs were discussed and partially agreed upon. The White House hasn't confirmed the same thing in the same terms. Senator Jerry Moran was blunt about it on Fox News: "We are waiting for China to say exactly what it agreed to."

The tariff truce between the US and China is set to expire in November. American businesses were hoping for an extension. According to BBC News, no formal extension was announced.

What the Left Is Getting Wrong

The New York Times framed the summit as proof that Trump's "personality-driven foreign policy" is reckless — that betting on charm over structure is dangerous. The criticism about the lack of concrete deals is fair. But the Times buries the context: the only deals possible with China right now were either fantasy (getting Beijing to restructure its entire economy) or a disaster (trading away Taiwan policy for trade concessions).

Atlantic Council analyst Matthew Kroenig made the same point plainly: the absence of major breakthroughs "is a good thing," because any realistic breakthrough would have been "either impossible or undesirable."

The absence of major agreements could be read as Trump avoiding concessions he shouldn't have made, which against China is often the actual goal.

What the Right Is Getting Wrong

Breitbart's Alex Marlow summed up the summit's achievement as "making sure we don't ever have a hot war with China." That's a low bar. Avoiding World War III is the floor, not the ceiling.

Fox News led with Trump's "fantastic trade deals" framing without immediately flagging that these deals were largely unverified, unnamed, and unconfirmed by Beijing. Cheerleading a press conference statement as a trade victory before any ink is dry isn't journalism. It's advocacy.

The Optics Problem

Melanie Hart, Senior Director of the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub and former senior State Department advisor on China, said Trump's "biggest misstep" was "portraying the United States as desperately needing Beijing's favor."

Bringing a parade of American CEOs — spanning agriculture, aviation, electric vehicles, and AI chips, according to BBC News — signaled hunger, not strength. Hart said it made Washington look "overly eager to sign deals that were not yet ready for prime time." Beijing read the room and played hardball.

Trump got the honor guard, the state banquet, and a tour of the exclusive Communist Party compound. Xi got a White House invitation and the image of a US president flying thousands of miles to court him. Symbolism matters in diplomacy. China understands that better than almost anyone.

Taiwan: The Line That Held

One area where Trump deserves credit: he didn't sell out Taiwan.

On the first day, China's Foreign Ministry published a readout quoting Xi warning Trump to "exercise extra caution" on Taiwan. According to the Atlantic Council's Matthew Kroenig, Trump held firm on "strategic ambiguity" — telling reporters he's the only one who knows whether the US would come to Taiwan's aid in an attack.

That's the correct approach. You don't tip your hand to Beijing. Trump didn't weaken US declaratory language on Taiwan's status. That matters more than much of the coverage is acknowledging.

What This Means for Regular Americans

The tariff truce expires in November. If it lapses without a deal, prices on imported goods go back up. American manufacturers still face Chinese market barriers. The trade deficit hasn't been structurally addressed.

The Boeing deal benefits aerospace workers. The rest of the "deals" need to be verified, written down, and explained to Congress before anyone starts celebrating.

Warm words between Trump and Xi are not a trade policy. A state banquet is not a tariff agreement. A handshake is not a binding commitment from a government that has spent decades making commitments it doesn't keep.

Watch what Beijing does in November. That's the real scorecard.