Deals signed during Trump’s visit to China

● Agreements follow president’s tough words on North Korea

US and Chinese companies have signed business deals valued at $9 billion(£6.84bn) during a visit by President Donald Trump in a traditional move aimed at blunting criticism of Beijing’s trade practices.

China’s biggest online retailer yesterday said it pledged to buy American beef and pork worth$ 1.2bn, but no other details were released about the 19 agreements signed at a ceremony attended by US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.

Such contract signings are a fixture of visits by foreign leaders to China and often involve agreements negotiated weeks or even months in advance which Beijing have saved to showcase its importance as a market.

Mr Trump has made narrowing the multi-billion-dollar US trade deficit with China

0 Melania and Donald Trump with China’s president Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Forbidden City a priority for his administration.

Confirmation of the business deals came as President Trump was welcomed to China with pomp and pageantry.

Mr Trump, saddled with consistently low approval ratings at home, is duelling with a newly emboldened Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently consolidated power.

A visit which is likely to include tough negotiations on multiple policy fronts began with a full-on display of diplomatic niceties. The president and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at the airport by dozens of children who waved US and Chinese flags, and jumped up and down. The couple sipped tea with Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, and received a private tour of the historic Forbidden City, Beijing’s ancient imperial palace. Young opera students also performed for them. Mr Trump said afterward that he was “having a great time” in China.

On Twitter later, Mr Trump wrote: “On behalf of Melania and I, thank you for an unforgettable afternoon and evening at the Forbidden City in Beijing, President Xi and Madame Peng Liyuan.”

Before arriving in Beijing yesterday, Mr Trump used an address to the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, to deliver a stern message to China, North Korea’s biggest trade partner.

Mr Trump urged “responsible nations” to unite and stop supporting North Korea.

“You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept,” he said, calling on “every nation, including China and Russia” to fully implement recent UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea.

Mr Trump underscored his words by tweeting yesterday that the North should not underestimate US resolve, echoing his speech from a day earlier. The president is expected to demand that China curtail its dealings with Pyongyang and expel North Korean workers.