Your weekly lineup of Asia's biggest business and political events
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, in October 2025. © Reuters
Asia's biggest event this week is U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to China and meeting with President Xi Jinping. The U.S. delegation, whose visit was delayed for weeks due to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran launched in late February, is expected to include American tech and financial executives.
But there are other eye-catching events in Asia, including the Philippine parliamentary vote on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, Thaksin Shinawatra's transfer from prison to house arrest in Thailand, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's visit to Japan and big tech companies' earnings.
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The Philippine House of Representatives is expected to hold a plenary vote on whether to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte. If House lawmakers vote in favor of impeaching Duterte, the process moves to the Senate.
Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is due to be moved from prison to house arrest. The home detention is expected to last four months. He completes his sentence in September.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will visit Japan for three days to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama and Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda. Discussion will likely cover currency issues, energy procurement and the Iran war. Bessent will then head to China with President Donald Trump later in the week.
SoftBank Group is scheduled to release its earnings for the fiscal year ended March, with investor attention focused on its artificial intelligence strategy and investments in OpenAI amid intensifying competition from rival Anthropic, which has been gaining traction.
Chinese and Taiwanese tech companies' earnings will come into focus as investors take greater interest in artificial intelligence. Alibaba Group Holding is set to release its fourth quarter results, while Tencent Holdings will report its first quarter earnings. Foxconn is also scheduled to announce its first quarter results on Thursday.
Trump's trip to ChinaU.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Beijing for a summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, after Trump's earlier planned trip was delayed by the Iran war. Their discussions are expected to focus on maintaining their trade war truce and managing future investment and commerce, as well as sensitive subjects such as Taiwan.
Japanese automaker Honda is due to release its financial results for the year ended March. The company faces heavy losses following changes to its electric vehicle strategy, and said in March that it would post a net loss of up to 690 billion yen ($4.4 billion) for the year, marking its first net loss since it listed in 1957. Nikkei Asia reported on Friday that the automaker had recorded its first operating loss in the year just ended. President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe is expected to elaborate on the company's future plans.
Malaysia's economy is forecast to have slowed in the first quarter of 2026, with advance estimates showing year-on-year GDP growth easing to 5.3% from 6.3% the previous quarter, although services, manufacturing and construction remained solid. Meanwhile, the ringgit has risen more than 3.4% so far this year against the dollar, even as markets remain cautious over the impact of the war in Iran on energy and trade in the Southeast Asian country.
