Fanfare in Beijing, as Trump is welcomed for summit
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump has been given a lavish welcome to Beijing where he and American business leaders will hold talks with their Chinese counterparts on Thursday. Also on the programme, is the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, about to be forced out of office? And, we hear from Alex Batty, the British boy who sparked a high-profile international missing person investigation. He tells us what happened.
(Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump walks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng during an arrival ceremony at Beijing Capital International Airport, in Beijing, China, May 13, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to Newsour from the World Service of the BBC. |
| 0:14.5 | We're coming live from London, and this is Owen Bennett Jones. |
| 0:18.3 | You may remember, in his first term, President Trump entertained the Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Marilago, Florida. |
| 0:27.0 | That was April 2017, and led to that extraordinary moment when Mr. Trump ordered U.S. airstrikes on Syria while she was still at the dinner table. Well, nine years later, |
| 0:40.8 | the two men have another meeting. With all the protocol you would expect for an encounter between |
| 0:46.3 | what are the two most powerful men on earth. Donald Trump has been saying this trip will be very special. |
| 0:57.6 | It may also be a bit fraught. |
| 0:59.4 | The two men do have a lot of tricky issues to get through. |
| 1:02.8 | So what are they likely to be talking about? |
| 1:06.6 | Our China correspondent, Laura Bicker, is in Beijing. |
| 1:09.8 | So I'm calling it the 40s. |
| 1:11.3 | Let's start with the big one, Tehran. |
| 1:13.4 | So obviously the war in Iran is now overshadowing these talks. |
| 1:17.5 | And when it comes to the United States, |
| 1:19.9 | they may be hoping that China can perhaps nudge its friend and ally to Iran towards the negotiating table. Now remember, China is Iran's |
| 1:30.6 | biggest buyer of oil, biggest trade partner and a long-time friend and ally. So it may well be |
| 1:37.3 | using that economic and political leverage. The US will hope that China can give them a hand here. |
| 1:43.3 | However, it will be interesting to see how willing Beijing is to do that. |
| 1:48.0 | They have been working behind the scenes. |
| 1:50.0 | They have also been working with Pakistan on that peace proposal. |
| 1:53.5 | However, China does not want to kind of wade too far into the Middle East conflict. |
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