Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shake hands before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, January 29, 2026.
Karl Cote | AFP | Getty Images
BEIJING — Countries that shunned China over trade tensions with the United States are now sending their leaders to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and are keen to strike business deals.
At least five national leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, visited Mr. Xi in January alone. Uruguay President Yamandu Orsi is scheduled to visit next week, becoming the first South American leader to do so since US President Donald Trump detained Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in early January.
It was the first visit by a Canadian and British leader in at least eight years, and the first visit by an Irish prime minister on Jan. 5 in 14 years. China closed its borders during the coronavirus pandemic and only fully reopened them in early 2023.
“Rather than a strategic pivot toward China, this trip reflects a selective, managed reset of U.S. policy amid heightened uncertainty,” said Yue Su, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“There is a growing view that keeping communication channels open with China is preferable to disengagement,” he said, “especially as the benefits of a selective reset with China become more visible and U.S. policy becomes less predictable.”
Since taking office 12 months ago, President Trump has imposed tariffs on many of the United States’ trading partners, not just China. In recent months, he has stepped up efforts to strengthen U.S. influence in Venezuela, Iran and Greenland.
This is an opportunity for Beijing, which has been trying to project itself not only as a partner to developing countries but also as a stabilizing force in the world.
“Maintaining distance from the United States shows that these countries value their relationship with China’s economic powerhouse,” Cui Xiangjun, a professor of international studies at Renmin University of China, said in a phone interview Thursday. According to a CNBC translation of his remarks in Mandarin:
While Europe and other countries may need to align with the United States on security issues, they are now stepping up their economic engagement, Choi said.
Facilitate business transactions
Large business delegations often accompany national leaders on state visits. Nearly 60 British businesses and cultural organizations sent representatives to accompany the British Prime Minister on his visit to China. British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca used his state visit to announce plans to invest $15 billion in China through 2030.
Similarly, during Carney’s visit, Canada agreed to reduce tariffs on a limited number of Chinese-made electric vehicles from 100% to 6.1% in exchange for lowering Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola seeds.
Global companies have long been eager to sell to China’s large consumer market, the world’s second largest.
Chinese leaders are calling on visiting countries to create a level playing field for Chinese companies operating or investing locally. Many Chinese companies, including electric car makers, are accelerating global expansion plans as domestic growth slows.
The Chinese government has increasingly made clear its efforts to build technological self-sufficiency and maintain its position on the world stage.
Earlier this month, the head of the ruling Communist Party of China’s international department wrote in a party newspaper that China’s modernization efforts are breaking away from the “Western-centric” model and giving developing countries new options.
The US and China still retain influence
However, the most important issue remains the tension between the world’s two largest economies. Some of the countries visited still consider the United States, rather than China, their largest trading partner.
According to World Bank statistics for 2024, the five countries whose leaders visited in January (Ireland, South Korea, Canada and Finland) have a combined gross domestic product of $8.71 trillion, less than half of China’s GDP of $18.74 trillion. The US GDP is still much larger at $28.75 trillion.
China became the first major economy to retaliate against President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025. The two countries agreed to a fragile one-year trade ceasefire in late October, and President Trump is scheduled to visit China in April.
During Starmer’s visit, the American Chamber of Commerce in China held a thank-you dinner in Beijing on Thursday night that included representatives from the Chinese side. In his opening remarks, Chairman James Zimmerman urged Presidents Trump and Xi to develop a vision for greater global stability.
Zimmerman said the potential for the two leaders to meet up to four times this year marks a “can’t-miss moment for sustained leadership and meaningful progress.”
Subscribe now
One of the opportunities for President Trump and President Xi to meet and to draw other world leaders to China is this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, which China is hosting. The APEC Forum is scheduled to hold a high-level meeting in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou early next month ahead of a major economic summit in November.
But visiting leaders still need to maintain a delicate balance when dealing with China.
President Trump this week threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Canada if Ottawa “makes a deal” with China, saying it would be “very dangerous” for Britain to do business with China. A day after returning from a state visit in December, French President Emmanuel Macron agreed with the interests of European industry and threatened to impose tariffs on China.
“These trips are a risk-averse strategy,” said Jack Li, a foreign policy analyst at consulting firm China Macro Group.
“We are keeping channels open with China as a means of maintaining strategic selectivity,” he said. But he warned that trust, especially between the EU and the Chinese government, remained limited.
