How Trump’s election integrity speech could affect the Xi Jinping summit

Trump previously said he expects to host Xi around Sept. 24, which coincides with the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The two leaders last met in May when Trump traveled to China as tensions from the Iran war and Taiwan’s status hovered over the summit.

Although Xi has not explicitly confirmed the visit, experts told the Washington Examiner that they don’t believe Trump’s speech will deter Xi.

“I think there are still a few things in the air, but the one thing that has been consistent from the White House and hasn’t been contradicted by the Chinese so far is that they plan to meet for a third conversation,” said Steve Yates, a senior research fellow for China and national security policy at the Heritage Foundation. 

Lyle Goldstein, the director of Defense Priorities’s Asia Program, told the Washington Examiner that Trump’s allegations would end up being more of “a passing shower than a major thunderstorm in U.S.-China relations.”

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“I do not expect it to scuttle the September meeting that is still planned. After decades of watching the impact of U.S. electoral politics on U.S.-China relations, the Chinese have grown quite sophisticated in their analysis of American politics, and they are likely to realize that the speech reflected domestic political imperatives from an unpopular president confronting some very serious crises,” he said Friday. “I think Beijing is quite pleased with the outcomes of the recent Trump-Xi summit and so will be extra reticent to rock the boat or engage in rhetorical theatrics that could worsen the situation.”

Goldstein called Trump’s claims a “puzzling anomaly,” given that, in his estimation, “these allegations are not new, remain quite unsubstantiated, and likely reflect Trump’s fixation on a previous electoral loss, as well as his lingering bitterness over ‘Russiagate’ accusations that his 2016 election benefited from foreign interference.”

A former senior national security official from Trump’s first term similarly doubted that Trump’s comments “will have a big impact on Xi’s visit” or the “relationship with China overall.”

“These election interference reports have been out there for a long time and are simply part of the background tensions between the two countries. Whether it’s the spy balloon, the land purchases near U.S. military bases, or the Confucius centers at major universities, Trump is clear-eyed about China’s actions to challenge U.S. power,” that person explained. “He knows how to build a relationship while at the same time calling out their conduct publicly when he feels it’s warranted.”

But at least one expert said they expect Trump to at least address the 2020 election interference claims with Xi when they meet. According to Piero Tozzi, senior director for China policy at the America First Policy Institute, the alleged breach by China was not the first. “In 2014, Chinese intelligence infiltrated our government’s systems and those of a government contractor, stealing a detailed road map of Americans with security clearances, their foreign contacts, and most tellingly their personal vulnerabilities,” Tozzi said. “President Trump made clear last night he will address this issue with General Secretary Xi when they meet in September.”

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Besides their May meeting in China, Trump and Xi also met in Busan, South Korea, in October 2025. Yates noted that the previous two summits came after Trump had accused China of originating the COVID-19 pandemic and facilitating the access of fentanyl into the United States. He did not expect this week’s kerfuffle to derail a meeting.

“From a Chinese point of view, it’s difficult to know what their calculus is in this,” Yates said. “Xi Jinping is a little bit different of a leader, and so a lot of the conventional analysis of China that goes back decades doesn’t apply in the same ways to Xi Jinping.”