Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference on China’s foreign policy and foreign relations on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 8, 2026 in Beijing, China.
vcg | China Visual Group | fake images
BEIJING – China’s top diplomat Wang Yi on Sunday stressed the benefits of engaging with the United States and noted that preparations are underway for a planned meeting between the two countries’ leaders amid differences over the war in Iran and trade tariffs.
“The agenda of high-level exchanges is already on the table,” Wang told reporters in Mandarin Chinese, according to an official translation. “What both sides need to do now is to make thorough preparations, create a suitable environment, manage the risks that exist and eliminate unnecessary disruption.”
“Turning our backs on each other would only lead to mutual misperception and miscalculations,” he said. “Falling into conflict or confrontation would only drag the entire world down.”
After meeting in person in South Korea in the fall, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump indicated plans to visit their respective countries.
Trump is scheduled to visit China from March 31 to April 2, which would be the first trip to the country by a sitting US president since 2017.
However, Beijing has yet to confirm the exact dates of Trump’s visit. Wang also did not elaborate, but noted that high-level interactions between the presidents of the United States and China have “provided (an) important strategic safeguard for the China-US relationship to improve and move forward.”
Some analysts have raised doubts about whether the trip will go ahead as planned, especially since it will likely come shortly after joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Wang did not name any of the people in his remarks to reporters on Sunday morning, but reiterated Beijing’s calls for a ceasefire in the Iran conflict.
“This is a war that should not have happened,” he said. “It is a war that benefits no one.”
Wang has held phone calls with at least seven foreign ministers, including those of Russia, Iran and Israel, since the joint US-Israel strikes against Iran began on February 28, according to official readouts.
He was speaking to reporters on Sunday on the sidelines of China’s eight-day annual parliamentary meeting that will conclude on Thursday. China’s top leaders, including President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Vice Premier He Lifeng, are meeting in Beijing with delegates from across the country.
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The bilateral discussions come as the United States and China reached a fragile truce in October to reduce tariffs on each other’s products to less than 50% for a year. The two countries had previously raised tariffs to more than 100% during the height of tensions last spring.
Responding to a question about Trump’s presentation of US-China relations as a new “G2” to lead the world, Wang rejected the idea that two countries alone would do it, instead emphasizing multipolarity.
Without naming the United States, Wang warned against “erecting tariff barriers and pushing for economic and technological decoupling.”
“This is no different than using firewood to put out a fire,” he said. “You’ll just get burned.”
