Trump Greets Xi at White House, Where Pomp May Mask Tensions
President Xi Jinping, on his first visit to Washington in a decade, struck a businesslike tone at the start of a summit that may produce little progress on issues dividing the powers. President Trump emphasized their personal relationship.
President Trump greeted President Xi Jinping of China at a lavish White House arrival ceremony on Thursday morning, with the two leaders striking different tones in their opening remarks at a landmark U.S.-China summit that is likely to be full of pomp but unlikely to produce significant agreements.
Mr. Trump emphasized the “truly great friendship” between the two leaders after they and their spouses met on a red carpet outside the White House. Mr. Xi’s opening remarks were less personal: The Chinese leader thanked the Trumps for their hospitality before turning to matters of geopolitics, including Chinese companies’ access to the United States.
“The interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined,” Mr. Xi said. The two nations, he said, must avoid the “Thucydides trap” — the theory that a rising power and an established power are likely to go to war.
Mr. Xi also announced that his country would be sending two pandas to the Atlanta zoo in the coming days as he invoked Mr. Trump’s oft-used slogan: “Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.”
The White House visit, Mr. Xi’s first in more than a decade, opened with elaborate ceremonies involving hundreds of U.S. military personnel and a B-2 stealth bomber flyover. On Thursday evening, Mr. Trump is set to host a state dinner in Mr. Xi’s honor.
But expectations are low for breakthroughs in resolving any of the major tensions between the world’s two most powerful countries. Those include a shaky trade-war truce, the fate of Taiwan, a risky A.I. race and China’s support for Iran and for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In a sign of the incremental nature of the two countries’ negotiations, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said late Wednesday that the United States and China had agreed to extend a one-year trade truce by two months, to Jan. 10. It had been due to expire Nov. 10.
Nor do experts expect much headway on artificial intelligence safety issues, despite American complaints about Chinese A.I. practices and even though some of America’s biggest tech titans have been invited to the dinner Thursday.
Mr. Xi, for his part, could take advantage of Mr. Trump’s efforts to maintain a good relationship by pressing him to continue delaying arms sales to Taiwan.
Here’s what else to know:
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Media access: No major U.S. TV network aired live footage of the initial meeting between the two leaders. A high-stakes summit would typically pre-empt regular programming, but the networks have declined to provide shared footage since Mr. Trump blocked CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. The administration had not acted on a judge’s order to restore access as of Thursday morning.President Trump and the first lady greeted President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House as a military band played. The two couples stood together briefly on a red carpet before heading inside.Reporters for CNN and MS NOW were allowed to re-enter the White House grounds around noon on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the Trump administration had barred journalists from those outlets and Politico from entering the grounds even after a federal judge ordered the immediate restoration of their access.
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First lady: Melania Trump is scheduled to take Mr. Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art after Thursday’s arrival ceremony. On Friday, the women will join their husbands for tea in the Red Room of the White House and for a tour of the National Archives.
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Yufang Rong holding a photograph of her husband, Youlin Chen, a seismologist who was detained in China in 2024. Americans detained: The families of two Americans listed by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained in China are urging Mr. Trump to press Mr. Xi for their release. They are Youlin Chen, a seismologist who was detained and accused of spying while visiting relatives in Beijing in 2024, and U Min Zin, a political scientist who was arrested in June while visiting southwest China to attend a conference at the invitation of the Chinese government.
The families of two Americans who have been listed by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained in China are urging President Trump to press President Xi Jinping for their release when the two leaders meet this week.
One of the Americans is Youlin Chen, a seismologist who was detained by Chinese state security officers and accused of spying while he was visiting relatives in Beijing in 2024. Mr. Chen, who was born in China, has conducted research for U.S. government and military agencies, including on the use of seismological data to better detect and analyze possible nuclear tests in North Korea. His family and colleagues say he has not done anything illegal.