WSJ What’s News - What Trump’s China Visit Actually Achieved

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

A.M. Edition for May 15. With President Trump wheels up after a two-day summit in China, WSJ White House reporter Annie Linskey discusses the significance of a visit light on concrete new announcements. Plus, the Supreme Court preserves widespread access to abortion pills. And the head of the CIA visits Havana, as Cuba’s Communist regime grapples with a U.S. energy blockade. Luke Vargas hosts.  Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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As President Trump departs China, we'll recap what did and didn't get accomplished. This has been an incredible visit. I think a lot of good has come up with. We've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries. Plus, the Supreme Court preserves widespread access to abortion pills, and the head of the CIA lands in Havana as Cuba's communist regime grapples with the U.S. energy blockade. It's Friday, May 15th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News,

the top headlines and business stories, moving your world today. President Trump has wrapped up a two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. So what did the two leaders achieve? Journal White House reporter Annie Lindskiy is in Beijing this morning. Annie, we had been led to believe this could be an announcement-heavy trip, and yet Trump is now wheels up from Beijing, and there's not a whole lot to speak of, is there? Yes, Air Force One left Beijing a few hours ago at this point.

And the deals that were previewed and expected have yet to materialize. There was a talk of a board of trade. There was talk of a board of investments. There was talk of deals in agriculture and soybeans. And look, some of those deals, cabinet-level officials are saying they are underway. There was a deal on Boeing airplanes. The Chinese will be buying 200 Boeing planes. That's down from the expected first.

500, and you could see the market reaction when the Boeing stock dipped on that news. And a few other areas where it sounds like the U.S. has made an announcement, but we haven't gotten confirmation of that from the Chinese side, for instance, buying more U.S. oil. Yes, that was something that the White House official and then later the president confirmed that there are talks about the Chinese increasing their purchasing of U.S. oil, as one White House official put it, to be less dependent on the strait of her moves. That sends a signal to Tehran that the Chinese are impatient with the closure of the strait and looking to put their money elsewhere. Iran is a war that Trump had hoped to be settled before the summit and in fact

delayed the summit by about six weeks believing that it would be finished by now. Yet he came and landed in Beijing and the strait remains closed. So these two leaders did end up having some conversations about how to resolve that conflict. And President Trump summarized their conversations saying that the Chinese believe the strait should be opened, believe that the Iranians should not be tolling the strait, and that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon. Now, we haven't heard yet from the Chinese side if that's how they see it. All right. So sort of a lack of deals, Annie, on one hand, then what are the big takeaways from all of this? These are the two leaders of the two largest and most powerful countries on the planet.

And the kind of overarching purpose of these two days of meetings was to show the world that these two leaders can work together and have a working relationship, even as the two countries are at times enmeshed in a rivalry that can get quite testy, intense, and heated. And that was achieved. I mean, you did see the Chinese do an ornate welcome for President Trump. You heard President Trump repeatedly referred to Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, as his friend. They had these moments of personal bonding that certainly the U.S. President Trump says is it very important to him. He sees geopolitics very much through personal relationships. So for him, it was quite important to have this time. And that is significant, even though it doesn't neatly fit into a headline of, you know, this deal or that deal. And they're going to meet again, which I guess maybe those are.

are the meetings we could maybe look to to see some of the concrete things announced that maybe we didn't get this time around. Yes, there was an announcement that this rapport between these two leaders will continue with another meeting this time in Washington, D.C., in mid-September. Now, saying that, it's the American side that had touted a big economic news coming out of the summit, and so far, most of that has not materialized. The Chinese side, though, also came into the summit very much you're making a big deal about Taiwan and the status of that self-governing island that is just off the coast of mainland China. And the U.S. side was very clear that the U.S. policy towards Taiwan has not changed. So that also, you know, that is a defeat for Xi Jinping, who had hoped to see some

amount of movement in U.S. diplomatic language even on that policy. And probably a win for hawks in Washington, too, who I understand we're sort of wary of maybe a little bit of slippage in the administration's language around Taiwan and maybe also wary that there are big deals on tech that starts seeing high-end American technology sold to China with potential dual use concerns around them. And we didn't really get any of that. No, that's right. I mean, one of the things that Trump said is that he and she talked about having a friendly or business environment, opening Chinese market to companies. That is a change from what Trump has talked about previously and even what Biden.

has talked about previously, Trump came to the summit with these leaders, with these tech leaders, saying to the Chinese, we want to do more business with you. So whether or not a deal is announced today or three weeks from now, I'm not sure that timing is as significant as this concept of the American stance towards China being, we would like these companies to have deeper relationships in China and be doing more business there. We want the business environment in China to be friendlier for these kinds of back and forth and these kinds of exchanges. Journal reporter Annie Linsky is in Beijing for us this morning. Annie, appreciate the update.

Safe travels back to Washington. Thank you so much. Coming up, we've got the rest of the day's news as the head of the CIA visits Cuba amid rising unrest on the island, and Arendra Modi calls on Indians to halt gold purchases. We've got those stories and more after the break. The head of the CIA has met with officials in Cuba. after they reported running out of fuel as a result of an American energy blockade. We report that Director John Rackcliffe said that Cuba had limited time to stabilize its economy

and engage with Washington. He also warned his Cuban counterparts that they should take President Trump seriously, referring to the raid to depose Venezuela's president to make the point. The Supreme Court is preserving mail access to a common abortion pill, issuing a brief order yesterday, siding with a pair of drug makers that manufacture Miffapristone. The companies had rushed to the court after a lower court in Louisiana earlier this month blocked Miffa Pristone from being prescribed through virtual appointments and sent to patients by mail. Anti-abortion groups have grown increasingly frustrated with

the Trump administration for not undoing Biden-era FDA regulations that expanded access to the drug during the pandemic. The Justice Department is accusing Yale Medical School of discriminating against white and Asian applicants in favor of their black and Hispanic counterparts. The findings are the result of a broader administration probe into alleged racial bias at medical schools, which saw the DOJ reach a similar conclusion regarding UCLA Medical School last week. The DOJ said it hopes to enter into voluntary agreements with both schools to bring their admissions practices into legal compliance. Both UCLA and Yale have stood by their admissions processes and said they're reviewing the DOJ's conclusions.

And we're exclusively reporting that Boeing and Toyota have each donated a million dollars to back a reality-style travel series starring Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his family linked to America's 250th birthday. It's more than a road trip. It's a civic experience. It's one of the most powerful ways to understand the vast, beautiful, complicated place we call home. The project, which was funded by a nonprofit backed by the likes of Boeing, Toyota, and and United Airlines, all of which have faced scrutiny in recent years by regulators overseen by Duffy,

has sparked an ethics complaint by the watchdog group crew, with its chief executive questioning whether the show was prioritizing the interests of sponsors or the public. While the Department of Transportation maintains that no taxpayer funds were used and the secretary earned no salary, the Department's Inspector General is currently reviewing the complaint. Duffy, a former cast member of MTV's The Real World, has defended the series on social media as a civic and patriotic endeavor. And finally, earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi echoed the sentiment of other world leaders facing a fuel supply crunch driven by the Iran War, saying that Indians

should work from home, carpool, and travel less. But our South Asia Bureau chief, Tripti Lahiri, says that what stood out was Modi's appeal to Indians to stop buying gold for an entire year in order to do. to shore up the country's foreign currency reserves. India, like many countries, probably thought that this would be over sooner. And Prime Minister Modi's appeal is a sign that India is now thinking that this could go on for months. And in that case, it needs to make sure that foreign currency isn't being spent at the same rate. It has been in the last few months.

One of the ways it can do that is by getting people to spend less on gold. India imports more than 700 metric tons of gold. and that costs it about $70 billion. So it's a big-ticket item among India's imports. It's number three after fuel and after electronic components imports. So that is one place where India can stop the outflow of foreign currency. The other reason it might want to do that is the fact that foreign institution investors have been taking money out of the country.

So all of that together has also been putting a lot of pressure on the Indian reprie, which has been one of the worst performing Asian currencies. against the dollar in the last year. Regardless of the wider economic stakes, Tripti told us that Modi's gold request has gotten a lot of attention in India, where the yellow metal holds a very special status. India's not just asking. It's also doing a bunch of things that should get people to buy less gold. For example, it's increased the tariff on gold to 15% from about 6% earlier.

It's also reduced the ability for jewelers to import gold duty-free. Gold is hugely important here. People buy it for weddings. It's kind of seen as a safeguard, but it's also seen as a special thing that women have when they get married, that they can use as collateral when they need to fund something for the family. So it has a lot of cultural and just social, significant weight. And Indian households are estimated to own these huge reserves just because of all these years and years of buying gold. Tripti told us that one thing working in Modi's favor is it's not traditionally a high season for buying gold now. purchases usually peak around the wedding season and Diwali in October and November.

And that's it for what's news for this Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff, and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend, and thanks for listening.