U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with members of Congress as he leaves the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
BEIJING—U.S. President Donald Trump avoided directly naming China in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, weeks before his scheduled visit to Beijing.
In the longest State of the Union Address by a US president, Trump covered a wide range of topics, from inflation and tariffs to stock market records.
But notably, he did not mention China directly, other than mentioning the “Russian and Chinese military technology” that protected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during an operation that led to the capture of foreign leaders.
During President Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, all three of his State of the Union addresses directly referenced the Chinese state. This statement primarily emphasized the Chinese government’s threat to the United States.
“Trump doesn’t want to pick a fight with China in an election year,” Teneo Managing Director Gabriel Wildo said, referring to the upcoming US midterm elections in November.
“Stabilizing the U.S.-China relationship is a priority for the president at least this year and likely for the rest of his term,” Wildau said.
To maintain this relationship, President Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing from March 31 to April 2, making him the first U.S. president to do so since 2017.
However, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet confirmed the exact dates of the visit, Asia Group partner George Chen pointed out. “Therefore, it appears that President Trump is more interested in visiting China than the amount involved.” [Chinese president Xi Jinping] I would like to host him. ”
“President Trump’s lack of mention of China in his speech is another example of how cautious President Trump is about U.S.-China relations right now,” Chen said.
Last spring, China and the United States gradually raised tariffs on each other’s products to well over 100%, before agreeing in October to a trade ceasefire that would keep tariffs below 50% next year. The Chinese government has also tightened regulations on rare earth exports around the world. The Asian country dominates the global supply chain for rare earths, critical minerals used in a range of technologies.
“The State of the Union showed that President Trump thinks it’s better election-year politics to glorify the U.S. military’s victory over a weak nation like Venezuela than to fight with China over rare earths,” Wildau said.
Uncertainty surrounding tariffs increased over the weekend after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week to invalidate tariffs that President Trump imposed on a wide range of countries last year. President Trump was then quick to point out alternative rationales for raising global tariffs.
Two Chinese state media outlets highlighted opposition in Congress to President Trump’s speech in social media posts on Weibo. In other respects, President Trump’s speech received muted attention within China.
Yue Su, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), said President Trump’s limited mention of China reflects how unpredictable his policy toward China is.
“in contrast, [Democrat U.S. President Joe] “Biden consistently mentioned China in his speeches, highlighting a degree of continuity and predictability in his China policy,” he said, referring to his predecessor Trump.
Democrats’ rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday focused directly on the Chinese government.
In response, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said, “But as the president speaks tonight about what he perceives to be his successes, he continues to cede economic power and technological power to Russia, he capitulates to China, he capitulates to Russian dictators, he continues to plan war with Iran.”
Big deal coming?
The failure to mention the world’s second-largest economy in his SOTU speech marks a strategic move for the US president, who has often called out Xi by name in public speeches.
EIU’s Su said if a deal is reached during Trump’s visit to Beijing, “he could easily frame it as a major accomplishment for his campaign.” “And if negotiations fail, a similarly retaliatory or hard-line approach domestically may be on the table.”
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Stephen Okun, founder and CEO of Singapore-based APAC Advisors, said this year’s presentations were naturally focused on themes affecting the midterm elections that did not include China.
But he noted that if President Trump really wanted to address affordability for American consumers, lower tariffs on China would “hit people’s wallets more quickly.”
“So a tariff agreement with China could be at the end of March or early April,” Okun told CNBC’s “Access Middle East” on Wednesday.
Many American business executives are expected to accompany President Trump when he visits China in the coming weeks. Meetings with the Chinese side could be an opportunity to assist China with transactions such as purchases of U.S. agricultural products.
When asked about President Trump’s limited discussion of China, Marko Papic, chief strategist at global investment research firm BCA Research, simply said, “A big deal is coming!”
—CNBC’s Sidney Go contributed to this report.
