US President Donald Trump will pay an official visit to China from May 13 to 15 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Monday.
This will be the first visit to China by a US president in almost nine years.
The visit comes in the midst of a prolonged US-Israel-Iran war, crisis over the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz causing a global energy crisis and increasing tensions between the two countries over a host of issues, including Taiwan.
US principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump would arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening for what she described as a 'visit of tremendous symbolic significance'.
The US leader will attend a welcome ceremony and a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The two leaders will meet again on Friday for a bilateral tea and working lunch, she said, adding that the US planned to host the Chinese leader for a reciprocal visit later this year.
