FedEx adds new US-China cargo flights ahead of Xi-Trump meeting

American delivery giant FedEx is expanding its trans-Pacific services between China and the United States, adding four weekly flights by cargo aircraft just days ahead of an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Shenzhen.

The Memphis-based courier said on Monday that Boeing 777 cargo planes would link Shanghai and Guangzhou with the US, providing additional capacity for advanced manufacturing, semiconductor production, artificial intelligence infrastructure and premium e-commerce.

Three flights will depart from Shanghai and stop in Osaka, Japan, before continuing to FedEx’s hubs in Anchorage, Alaska, and Memphis, Tennessee. The fourth will fly from Guangzhou to Anchorage and Memphis.

FedEx has also added a five-times-weekly service from China to Dallas-Fort Worth via Anchorage, carrying chips and other components used in AI infrastructure.

“As businesses prepare for one of the busiest shipping periods of the year, access to reliable air cargo capacity is critical,” said Poh-Yian Koh, president of FedEx China, in a statement.

The expansion underscores the resilience of commercial ties between the world’s two largest economies despite years of geopolitical friction and technological rivalry. Bilateral trade rose 4.1 per cent year on year to 3.18 trillion yuan (US$477 billion) in the first three quarters of 2026, according to Chinese customs data cited by FedEx.

The company also cited a Frost & Sullivan report that ranked China as the world’s largest single-country semiconductor market, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the global total.

FedEx’s new services come as Beijing and Washington cautiously manoeuvre to preserve an uneasy trade truce reached in Busan, South Korea, in October 2025.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer spoke with Vice-Premier He Lifeng on Friday, with Bessent urging China to honour its commitments “fully and immediately” and raising concerns about some of Beijing’s recent actions, according to a US Treasury readout.

Chinese state-media outlet Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday that He had also voiced “serious concern” about recent US trade restrictions, while describing the talks as “candid, thorough and constructive”.

Markets are closely watching the expected meeting between Xi and Trump on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on November 18–19, which would mark their third face-to-face encounter this year.

The two leaders extended the Busan trade agreement during their last meeting in Washington in September, pushing its expiry from November 10 to January 10, 2027.