Trump Hosts Xi at White House Summit Heavy on Symbolism, Light on Breakthroughs
Trump welcomed Xi to the White House for a lavish state visit with no breakthroughs on trade, Taiwan, AI or Iran, though both leaders stressed cooperation.
US President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday for a state visit marked by elaborate ceremony but few concrete outcomes on the disputes dividing the world's two largest economies.
The summit — Xi's first trip to Washington in more than a decade and the second meeting between the two leaders this year — unfolded as scores of other world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, underscoring the unusual priority Washington placed on the bilateral engagement.
At a black-tie state dinner featuring sesame-crusted sea bass and a guest list crowded with technology executives, Trump said the two leaders represented different systems but that ties between their peoples endured. He described his relationship with Xi as a "truly great friendship" and said the two sides had made progress on trade since his trip to China in May.
Xi said the two had held in-depth discussions and reached common understanding on many issues, offering what he called new strategic guidance for the relationship. He called on both countries to act as responsible major powers and to pursue a healthy form of competition, noting that their interests were deeply intertwined. He also said US companies were welcome in China and expressed hope that Chinese firms would be treated fairly in the United States.
The visit came at a moment of shifting leverage. Xi entered the talks with a strengthened hand, buoyed by a surge in Chinese trade and Beijing's dominance in rare-earth minerals, while Trump has faced rising public concern over energy prices driven up by the war with Iran and mounting pressure ahead of November midterm elections.
During an afternoon bilateral session, Xi urged the US to oppose Taiwan independence, according to a readout from China's official news agency. The White House had not yet released its own account of the talks. Xi had been expected to press Trump to halt arms sales to Taiwan; after his May trip to China, Trump said he was holding in abeyance an arms package to Taipei worth about $14 billion, describing it as a valuable negotiating chip. That decision unsettled some US allies in Asia and some of Trump's fellow Republicans, who feared Washington's support for Taipei could be softened in pursuit of economic gains. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control.
On artificial intelligence, Xi said development of the technology must always remain under human control. Analysts caution that intense US-China competition in AI is likely to limit the scope for anything beyond symbolic agreements, and people familiar with US plans said Trump is expected to maintain firm export controls on American technology that Beijing wants loosened.
Xi also expressed support for the US and Iran to return to a ceasefire and eventually negotiate a peace deal, according to the Chinese readout. There has been little indication Beijing is willing to pressure Tehran to meet US demands. Trump had forcefully defended his use of military power in a speech at the UN earlier in the week, suggesting he could annihilate Iran, but adopted a markedly different tone with Xi.
Xi said both militaries should maintain regular dialogue to improve crisis prevention.
The contrast in messaging drew comment from Edgard Kagan, a former senior White House official for East Asia now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said Trump framed the encounter around his personal relationship with Xi while Xi was more cautious and emphasized the national relationship instead.
Outside the White House gates, protesters shouted slogans including "China out of Hong Kong," audible to the leaders as they posed for photographs on the red-carpeted steps. The day's events also included Trump showing Xi a helipad built within the White House complex and inviting dinner guests to tour the site of a new ballroom under construction nearby.
No US television network carried the leaders' remarks live, with broadcasters declining to provide footage in protest of the White House's exclusion of CNN, MS Now and Politico.
The dinner drew chief executives including Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Tesla's Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang.