A week before the U.S.-China summit scheduled for the 14~15, a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation visited Beijing, China, and held a series of meetings with senior officials. China appears set to put the Taiwan issue squarely at the forefront of the summit, while the U.S. side is expected to focus on securing economic outcomes such as purchases of Boeing aircraft.

NBC News and the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on the 7th (local time) that a five-member delegation led by U.S. Senator Steve Daines of Montana (Republican) met with Premier Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and Wang Yi, director of the Communist Party’s Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs and concurrently Minister of Foreign Affairs, among others.

Senator Daines serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is regarded as a trusted confidant of President Trump and an informal intermediary trusted by both Washington and Beijing. SCMP reported that Daines worked for six years in China in the 1990s as an executive at P&G (Procter & Gamble), and that he also acted as an informal intermediary during the 2019 U.S.-China trade dispute.

Although the delegation framed the trip as a study tour of China’s technology ecosystem, it is effectively seen as advance groundwork to set the tone ahead of the U.S.-China summit.

Chinese officials raised Taiwan as a core agenda item in their meetings with the U.S. delegation. In their talks, Premier Li stressed, “Taiwan is a core interest of China and the first red line that must not be crossed in U.S.-China relations.” Zhao said, “The Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests and the most important issue in U.S.-China relations,” adding, “The U.S. side should adhere to the one-China principle and handle the Taiwan issue prudently.”

Wang Zhisheng, a professor at Taiwan’s Central Police University, told NBC News that “it is unusual to use such hard-line language right before a summit,” assessing that “it explicitly links U.S. diplomatic actions regarding Taiwan with U.S.-China relations.”

By contrast, Senator Daines emphasized economic expectations. In his meeting with Director Wang, he said, “I firmly believe the U.S.-China relationship should move toward de-escalation rather than decoupling,” adding, “The two countries need stability and mutual respect.”

He added, “China’s last purchase of Boeing aircraft was nine years ago,” expressing hope that “this summit will lead to orders for Boeing aircraft.”

The Brookings Institution gathered its experts’ views and assessed that expectations for the summit should be kept low. Jonathan Chin, a senior fellow and China specialist at Brookings, said on the 4th that “a fragile stability will continue without substantive agendas or in-depth dialogue on core conflicts,” warning that “rather than becoming a starting point for additional agreements, this meeting risks becoming the peak of a U.S.-China relationship with only a downhill path left.”