Trump to push China on trade, North Korea during 2-day visit

President Donald Trump will push China on trade and North Korea during a two-day visit in which he will cajole, flatter and scold the rising Asian power.

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, to travel to Beijing. Trump is on a five-country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

White House aides view Trump's visit as the centerpiece of his lengthy Asia tour. Trump, who is mired in consistently low approval ratings at home, will encounter newly emboldened Chinese President Xi Jinping, who recently consolidated power in his country, while Trump's every utterance will be studied by allies anxious to see if his inward-looking "America First" mantra could cede power in the region to China.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, children wave U.S. and Chinese flags as U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive at Beijing Airport, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, in Beijing. Trump is on a five-country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (Pang Xinglei/Xinhua via AP)

Before arriving in Beijing on Wednesday, 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. Trump urged "responsible nations" to unite and stop supporting North Korea.

President Donald Trump, second left, first lady Melania Trump, left, Chinese President Xi Jinping, second right, and his wife Peng Liyuan, right, stand together as they tour the Forbidden City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, in Beijing, China. Trump is on a five country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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

Children wave to the car carrying U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump after arriving in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017. (Thomas Peter/Pool Photo via AP)

Trump is expected to demand that China curtail its dealings with Pyongyang and expel North Korean workers. Trump has praised China for taking some steps against Pyongyang but urged them to do more, as administration officials believe the border between China and North Korea remains a trade corridor.

"I want to just say that President Xi -- where we will be tomorrow, China -- has been very helpful. We'll find out how helpful soon," Trump said Tuesday night in Seoul. "But he really has been very, very helpful. So China is out trying very hard to solve the problem with North Korea."

The White House is banking on Trump's personal rapport with Xi to drive the negotiations. Trump has frequently showered praise on Xi, who recently became the nation's most powerful leader in decades, including with a trip to Trump's Florida estate for a summit.

U.S. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, right, stand together as they tour the Forbidden City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, in Beijing, China. Trump is on a five-country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"He's a powerful man. I happen to think he's a very good person. Now with that being said, he represents China, I represent the U.S.A., so, you know, there's going to always be conflict," Trump recently told the Fox Business Network. "People say we have the best relationship of any president-president, because he's called president also. Now some people might call him the king of China. But he's called president."

The president and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at the airport by dozens of children who waved U.S. and Chinese flags and jumped up and down. They sipped tea with Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, received a private tour of the Forbidden City, Beijing's ancient imperial palace, including a performance by young opera students before dinner. Trump said afterward that he's "having a great time" in China.

White House officials point to the summit in Florida this spring, an event partly defined by Trump telling his Chinese counterpart about the missile strike he ordered on Syria while the two men dined on chocolate cake. But experts in the region suggest that Xi may be playing Trump.

"Trump keeps portraying his relationship with XI as great pals but that's wildly naive," said Mike Chinoy, an expert on East Asia policy at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. "The Chinese have figured out how to play Trump: flatter him. And there's nothing the Chinese do better than wow foreign diplomats."

Trump talked tough during his campaign about fixing American's trade relationship with China and labeling it a "currency manipulator." But he has signaled that he would take it easy on Beijing if it will help with the nuclear threat from North Korea.

"Trump has mortgaged the whole U.S.-China relationship to get the Chinese on board with the North Korea plan," Chinoy said. "He is now coming at it from a position of weakness."

White House officials have said that if Trump were to chide Xi about human rights or democratic reforms he would likely do it privately. Andrew Nathan, a political science professor and China expert at Columbia University, said Trump's "infatuation" with Xi was reminiscent of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's fascination with Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China.

"For Trump, Xi is wish fulfillment: 'I wish I could be as powerful as that guy!'" Nathan said.

One uncertainty for Trump: whether he will be able to use Twitter in China, which has banned the social media platform. Though the United States could enable it to work, the White House declined to comment on whether Trump would tweet from China.

Trump arrived in Beijing after two days in Seoul, where he largely avoided the inflammatory rhetoric — like dubbing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "Little Rocket Man" — that has defined his approach to Pyongyang. But he also warned North Korea in his speech to "not underestimate us. And do not try us."

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose during a tour of the forbidden city, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, in Beijing, China. Trump is on a five country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

He also sounded an optimistic note while in South Korea, saying confidently, if vaguely, that "ultimately, it'll all work out" while shifting views and expressing hope that diplomacy could resolve the tensions. Trump also underlined U.S. military options, noting that three aircraft carrier groups and a nuclear submarine had been deployed to the region.

But he said "we hope to God we never have to use" the arsenal.

One hoped-for message to Pyongyang went unsent. Though the White House had previously indicated that Trump would not visit the heavily fortified demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, plans had been in the works for him to make an unannounced visit Wednesday morning.

Trump boarded the Marine One helicopter and flew to within five minutes of the DMZ when U.S. military pilots and Secret Service agents determined the fog was too thick to safely land. The helicopter returned to Seoul and Trump waited nearly an hour for the weather to clear.

The fog did not lift in time.

HAVANA (AP) — Officials in Cuba reported an islandwide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines on X noted a “complete disconnection” of the country’s electrical system and said it was investigating, noting there were no failures in the units that were operating when the grid collapsed.

It was the third major blackout in Cuba over the past four months.

Tomás David Velázquez Felipe, a 61-year-old resident of Havana, said the relentless outages make him think that Cubans who can should just pack up and leave the island. “What little we have to eat spoils,” he said. “Our people are too old to keep suffering.”

By Monday night, state-owned media reported that crews had restored power to 5% of Havana's residents, representing some 42,000 customers, as well as several hospitals across the island. Officials said they would prioritize the communications sector next, all while warning that the small circuits restored so far could fail again.

Cuba’s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to an increase in daily outages and islandwide blackouts. But the government also has blamed its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after U.S. President Donald Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The Trump administration is demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump also has raised the possibility of a "friendly takeover of Cuba."

On Monday, he said he believes he’ll have the “honor of taking Cuba.”

“I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I could do anything I want with it,” Trump said about Cuba, calling it a “very weakened nation.”

The U.S. Embassy in Cuba wrote on X on Monday that “there is no information on when power would be restored.”

“Cuba’s national electrical grid is increasingly unstable and prolonged scheduled and unscheduled power outages are a daily occurrence across the country,” it wrote. “Take precautions by conserving fuel, water, food, and mobile phone charge, and be prepared for significant disruption.”

William LeoGrande, a professor at American University who has tracked Cuba for years, said the country's energy grid hasn't been maintained properly and its infrastructure is “way past its normal useful life.”

“The technicians working on the grid are magicians to keep it running at all given the shape that it’s in," LeoGrande said.

LeoGrande said that if the island drastically reduces consumption and expands renewables, it can struggle along for a while without oil shipments. “But it would be constant misery for the general population, and eventually, the economy could collapse just completely and then you would have social chaos and probably mass migration,” he said.

To ramp up solar power even faster than Cuba did last year, LeoGrande said other countries, principally China, would have to be willing to double or more their provision of such equipment.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday said the island had not received oil shipments in three months and was operating on solar power, natural gas and thermoelectric plants, and that the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people.

Yaimisel Sánchez Peña, 48, said she was upset that the food she buys with money that her son in the U.S. sends keeps spoiling, adding that the outages also affect her 72-year-old mother: “Every day, she suffers."

Mercedes Velázquez, a 71-year-old Cuban resident, lamented yet another blackout. “We’re here waiting to see what happens,” she said, adding that she recently gave away part of a soup she made while it was still fresh so as not to throw it out. “Everything goes bad.”

A massive outage over a week ago affected the island’s west, leaving millions without power. Another major blackout affected western Cuba in early December.

Critical oil shipments from Venezuela were halted after the U.S. attacked the South American country in early January and arrested its then-president, Nicolás Maduro.

While Cuba produces 40% of its petroleum and has been generating its own power, it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand as its electric grid continues to crumble.

“And on top of all that, the Cuban government doesn’t have the hard currency to import spare parts or upgrade the plant or grid itself. It’s just a perfect storm of collapse," LeoGrande said.

He noted that the thermoelectric plants also have been using heavy oil, whose sulfur content is corroding the equipment.

On Friday, Díaz-Canel confirmed that Cuba was holding talks with the U.S. government as the problems continue to deepen.

The deputy prime minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, told reporters Monday that Cuba is open to trading with U.S. companies while noting the embargo’s limitations.

He said he’s also implementing new measures aimed at boosting the island’s economy. Among those is the possibility of allowing Cubans residing abroad to be partners or owners of private companies in the country and to be involved in large-scale projects, including those related to infrastructure, according to state media.

He said those Cubans will be allowed to partner with Cuban private companies and establish ties with both state-owned and private Cuban entities.

Pérez-Oliva added that the government also will grant land under usufruct for the development of certain projects.

He said Cubans residing abroad also will be able to open foreign currency bank accounts in Cuban banks, which will facilitate transactions.

Coto reported from San José, Costa Rica. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.

People walk outside during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man walks outside during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People ride a bicycle during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man rides a tricycle with his leashed dog running alongside him during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man finishes putting fuel in his car's tank, located in the back of the car, during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk outside during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man speaks with a person in a car during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People ride their bicycles along the Malecón during a blackout in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People line up in the street to buy bread in Havana, Cuba, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)