Trump and Xi are scheduled to deliver remarks on Thursday morning at the White House, hold their bilateral meeting, and make remarks again in the evening as part of a state dinner.
The schedule does not include a news conference and it’s unclear whether Trump and Xi will take questions from either American or Chinese reporters.
In a 2015 meeting, Xi and then-US president Barack Obama held a joint news conference as part of a White House summit. In the Rose Garden, which Trump has since turned into a patio, each president made opening remarks. Then they each answered one question from a US reporter and another from a Chinese reporter before taking additional, nation-specific questions.
Of course, looming over all of this is Trump’s legal showdown with journalists from MS Now, Politico and CNN whom Trump has tried to ban from the White House, who were turned away from the building this morning, in apparent defiance of a federal judge’s order to restore their access. US networks are boycotting White House pool coverage in protest.
My colleague Chris Hippensteel is covering all the latest on that on our US politics blog:
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To the blare of trumpets, Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walked out of the White House residence onto the South Lawn, where they greeted Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan as they stepped out of a black vehicle and onto the red carpet.
They warmly shook hands and then posed for the cameras.
Anti-Beijing and pro-Beijing protesters gathered outside the White House ahead of Xi’s arrival, the Associated Press notes.
“Down with Xi Jinping,” chanted those condemning Beijing’s brutal policy in Tibet. They also chanted, “Shame on Xi Jinping.”
Another group has gathered about a block away with banners welcoming the Chinese leader.
The two camps are separated and there has been no direct clash.
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Xi arrives at the White House
Donald and Melania Trump have just welcomed Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan with a military band and the flags of both countries to the White House.
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AI looms large over Trump-Xi meeting amid deep distrust between US and China
by Amy Hawkins and David Smith
The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a “strategic stability” between the two powers. But there was little by way of concrete outcomes: the countries remain at loggerheads over trade, export controls and geopolitics.
Despite the goodwill built in May, few anticipate any major breakthroughs this week when Xi makes his first state visit to the US since 2015. “Expectations are very low,” said Bonnie Glaser, a managing director at the US thinkthank the German Marshall Fund. “Nobody is using the term ‘deliverables’.”
One area in which Trump and Xi may reach some consensus is on artificial intelligence safety. Tech executives including Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jensen Huang of Nvidia will reportedly attend a state dinner at the White House on Thursday evening.
On Wednesday evening, Donald Trump welcomed Xi Jinping to the US, taking the unusual step of greeting the Chinese leader on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews to kick off his state visit to Washington.
Xi’s plane was met with a lavish arrival ceremony that included a 30-metre-long (100ft) red carpet flanked by US service members, a military flyover by two B-1 bombers and a presentation of the flags and national anthems of both countries.
US presidents typically welcome foreign leaders at the White House, but Trump and the first lady, Melania, traveled to the the military base in Maryland, just outside Washington, to personally shake hands with Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Wednesday evening.
Ahead of talks with Xi, Trump points to AI as major subject
President Trump teased in a social media post this morning that artificial intelligence would be a major part of his talks today with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his state visit to Washington.
He also suggested that he would avoid entertaining any kind of agreement between the two nations limiting AI development.
“A big day with President Xi of China,” Trump wrote in the post to his personal social media platform. “Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China’s position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ! President DJT.”
(Super intelligence is the term Trump has been pushing to refer to artificial intelligence. He pitched the language earlier this week in a tangent during his speech to the world leaders at the United Nations. It’s unclear at this point if anybody is going to take him up on it.)
After an unusually warm red carpet welcome ceremony on the tarmac yesterday, Trump is scheduled to receive Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House South Portico. The pair will deliver remarks, exchange gifts, and watch a military review before a busy day of talks and diplomatic pageantry.
What’s on the agenda for the Trump-Xi summit, and what won’t they discuss?
The leaders of the world’s two superpowers are meeting in the US on Thursday for Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. The last time the Chinese president was hosted in Washington (by Barack Obama in 2015), the issues on the agenda included cybercrime, technology, the climate crisis and human rights. The star of the day was Ne-Yo, who serenaded Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with Peng reportedly singing along at the state dinner.
This time, Xi is meeting Donald Trump, who has overhauled the world order and recalibrated the US-China relationship. Trump is contending with a China that is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago. Click the link below for five things to look out for at the US-China summit.
Trump and Xi to talk AI and trade in major Washington meeting
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have plenty to cover when they sit down for talks Thursday at the White House.
The US and Chinese leaders are tackling issues like trade irritants, artificial intelligence safeguards and the war in Iran. Trump wants China to use its influence with Iran, while Xi seeks a halt to US arms sales to Taiwan.
A fragile trade truce had been set to expire in November, but the two countries agreed Wednesday to extend it for two months.
This is Xi’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. Stick with us as we bring you the latest lines.
