Buenos Aires (CNN) BUENOS AIRES — One of President Donald Trump's hardest-line advisers on China trade, Peter Navarro, will participate in a Saturday dinner meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Navarro's presence at the dinner table alongside Trump reflects a change in plans after the White House said Navarro wouldn't join Trump's more moderate advisers like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for the trip to Argentina.

The author of a book titled "Death by China," Navarro has butted heads with other advisers who have pushed Trump to adopt a more moderate approach toward China. He's pressed for maintaining the tough set of tariffs that have spurred tit-for-tat retaliation from Beijing.

The dinner scheduled for Saturday evening has been cast as a key encounter that could help the two leaders ease the trade tensions, or it could end in stalemate. Trump has threatened fresh tariffs and set a January deadline for raising the existing ones from 10% to 25% on a range of goods.

Trump, recently unnerved by shaky US markets and the closure announcement of General Motors factories in Ohio, has appeared more open to a trade breakthrough with China in the last several days, according to people who have spoken to him.

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