Putin’s trip to China would come just days after a historic
summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Putin is expected to arrive for a one-day visit, the outlet
reported. His trip is unlikely to match the scale or choreography of Trump’s
visit.
The newspaper’s sources said the planned visit is part of
routine contacts between Moscow and Beijing.
It would mark the first time China has hosted the leaders of
both countries in the same month outside a multilateral setting, underscoring
Beijing’s effort to manage ties with Moscow and Washington while positioning
itself as a central player in an increasingly fragmented world order, the
outlet reported.
Kremlin regime spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 14 that
the timing of Putin’s visit to China had been set, but did not give a date.
The Russian dictator last visited China in late August and
early September 2025.
Trump’s visit to China
U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on May 13 for
two days of high-level talks with Xi.
Trump was accompanied by members of his national security
and economic teams, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary
Scott Bessent.
More than 10 prominent business leaders also joined the
trip, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg,
Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, and executives from BlackRock, Blackstone,
Cargill, Citi, Coherent, GE Aerospace, Goldman Sachs, Illumina, Mastercard,
Micron, Qualcomm and Visa.
Trump and Xi met in Beijing on May 14 for bilateral talks at
the Chinese parliament building.
The meeting was held behind closed doors. China’s Xinhua news agency reported that Xi warned Trump that China and the United States could “come into conflict” if the Taiwan issue, which Beijing claims as its own, is mishandled.
Trump and Xi also held a private meeting at Zhongnanhai, the
closed government compound used by China’s Communist Party leadership and often
compared to the U.S. White House.
Inviting foreign leaders to Zhongnanhai is considered a
special gesture of trust and political goodwill by Beijing, CNN reported.
Trump said the two sides had reached “fantastic trade
deals,” according to the White House pool.