US and Chinese companies have signed business deals valued at nine billion dollars during a visit by President Donald Trump in a move aimed at blunting criticism of Beijing’s trade practices.

The deals, worth £6.84bn, came as Mr Trump began his two-day visit to China, where trade and North Korea were expected to dominate talks with Xi Jinping.

White House insiders view Mr Trump’s visit as the centrepiece of his lengthy Asia tour.

The US leader, who is mired in consistently low approval ratings at home, will encounter the newly emboldened Chinese president, who recently consolidated power in his country.

Mr 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.

Before arriving in Beijing, Mr 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.

He urged “responsible nations” to unite and stop supporting North Korea.

“You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept,” he said, calling on “every nation, including China and Russia” to fully implement recent UN Security Council resolutions on Pyongyang.

Mr Trump is expected to demand that China curtail its dealings with the North and expel North Korean workers.

He 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.

He said: “I want to just say that President Xi has been very helpful. We’ll find out how helpful soon.

“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 Mr Trump’s personal rapport with Mr Xi to drive the negotiations. The US president has frequently showered praise on Mr Xi, who recently became the nation’s most powerful leader in decades, and has taken a trip to Mr Trump’s Florida estate for a summit.

“He’s a powerful man. I happen to think he’s a very good person,” Mr Trump said in an interview recently. “Now with that being said, he represents China, I represent the USA, so, you know, there’s going to always be conflict.

“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.”

Mr Trump and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at the airport by dozens of children who waved US and Chinese flags and jumped up and down.

They sipped tea with Mr 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.

Mr Trump said afterwards 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 Mr 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 Mr Xi may be playing Mr 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 US-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.”

Mr Trump talked tough during his campaign about fixing American’s trade relationship with China and labelling it a “currency manipulator.” But he has signalled that he would take it easy on Beijing if it will help with the nuclear threat from North Korea.

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

White House officials have said that if Trump were to chide Mr Xi about human rights or democratic reforms he would likely do it privately.

As billions of dollars of trade deals were signed, China’s biggest online retailer said it pledged to buy American beef and pork worth 1.2 billion dollars (£912 million).

No other details were released of the 19 agreements signed at a ceremony attended by US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.

Mr Ross said: “Addressing the imbalance in China trade has been a central focus of collaborative discussions between President Trump and President Xi.

“And achieving fair and reciprocal treatment for the companies is a shared objective.

“Today’s signings are a good example of how we can productively build up our bilateral trade.”

Online retailer JD.com said it would buy beef from the Montana Stock Growers Association and pork from Smithfield Foods over the next three years. Smithfield is owned by China’s WH Group, the world’s biggest pork packer.

China is the third biggest export market for the United States after Canada and Mexico.