Taiwan was front and center during Trump's China trip — but absent from Xi’s meeting with Putin

BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 15: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping while leaving after a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden on May 15, 2026 in Beijing, China. Evan Vucci | The meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. and Russian counterparts came just days apart, but the style and substance of the encounters stood in stark contrast. Xi's meeting with President Donald Trump was replete with pomp and pageantry, reflecting Beijing eagerness to project China's power, strength and history during the White House leader's state visit. but the Chinese premier's meeting with his Russian counterpart and "friend" Vladimir Putin has been a much more relaxed affair, with the two leaders reaffirming already close strategic and geopolitical ties. One major notable difference between the two encounters, however, was Taiwan, which was a cornerstone of one meeting and completely absent from the other. The contested status of the island — which China claims as its own — was a central and awkward issue in Xi's meeting with Trump, but the thorny matter was glossed over in talks with Putin. "Xi does not want to have the Taiwan issue, and China's claims that Taiwan is rightfully its territory, to be conflated with Russia's irredentism and claims, and war, on Ukrainian territory," Max Hess, founder of political risk consultancy Enmetena Advisory, told CNBC Wednesday. …