Since assuming office in January, the Trump administration has sent conflicting signals on China, while Beijing has launched an extensive diplomatic outreach in America.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit the U.S next week, the White House and the Chinese government announced on Thursday. “The President will host President Xi Jinping of China at Mar-a-Lago April 6–7, 2017,” tweeted Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Mar-a-Lago is a private club in Florida owned by the President.

The first meeting between the two leaders, coming after an election campaign in which Mr. Trump constantly targeted China for its alleged unfair trade practices, could set the tone for the new administration’s policy towards Asia. The meeting takes place also against the backdrop of heightened threat from North Korea. Mr. Trump believes that China is not pulling its weight behind international efforts to rein in the autocratic regime.

Since assuming office in January, the Trump administration has sent conflicting signals on China, while Beijing has launched an extensive diplomatic outreach in America. China has activated all its contacts in the U.S to make bridges with the new administration, according to an Indian source.

Since January, the Trump administration has sent conflicting signals with regard to China. During his confirmation hearing in January, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was strident. "We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. However, his remarks during his first visit as Secretary of State to Beijing earlier this month were widely seen as a mellowed position towards China. Mr. Tillerson said the bilateral relations were based on “mutual respect” and “win-win” cooperation – phrases that connote U.S willingness to accommodate China’s position on Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Mr. Trump was also forced to make a hasty retreat after trying to make Taiwan a bargaining point in U.S ties with China. The White House reiterated the U.S ‘One-China’ policy after Beijing made it clear that no engagement could begin until that is clarified.