Yesterday, US President Donald Trump welcomed his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, with a military air show and a 100-foot (30-meter) red carpet, marking the start of a three-day summit in Washington.
In a rare move, Trump received the delegation accompanying President Xi at the airport, where the US Air Force Band played music on the airport grounds while the American and Chinese flags fluttered.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump received President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Wednesday evening at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
This high-stakes visit, President Xi's first to Washington since 2015, is expected to include closed meetings, an official dinner, and discussion of numerous files ranging from artificial intelligence and the situation related to Iran and Taiwan, all the way to extending the trade truce.
The Chinese Communist Party leader arrived on an Air China plane at 17:39 local time (22:39 British Summer Time).
The Honor Guard marched forward carrying the flags of the two countries and took their positions on both sides of the red carpet, while two limousines stopped at the place.
Xi and Peng got off the plane and exchanged handshakes with Trump and his wife, then had a brief conversation before walking side by side down the red carpet and posing for photos.
Two B-1 bombers flew overhead while the Army Air Forces Band played the American national anthem. These supersonic aircraft are a major part of the American combat arsenal.
After exchanging words of courtesy and welcome, the two leaders left in separate cars heading to Washington.
This is the first time since 1962 that an American president has personally received a foreign leader at this base, which reflects the importance that Trump attaches to this visit.
In 1962, the late US President John F. Kennedy received the late British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
In a related context, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent announced on Wednesday that the United States and China will extend their trade truce until January.
The truce was scheduled to expire on November 10. The agreement under which Trump reduced tariffs on some goods in exchange for Xi easing restrictions on rare earth minerals.
Besant - who spoke after his meeting with Chinese Deputy Prime Minister He Lifeng - said that the two sides discussed the possibility of reaching a more fundamental trade agreement between the two countries in the future.
In a written statement published by China's official news agency, Xinhua, Xi stated that both China and the United States are "two great countries, and their people are great people."
He said: "The two countries should be partners, not rivals."
For her part, Melania Trump stated that she was closely involved in planning the visit program, and told Fox News that Trump made the decision to personally receive Xi at the airport “due to the excellent relationship between them.”
Xi is accompanied on this visit by a delegation that includes Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the party's Politburo, who is widely seen as his right-hand man, Vice Premier He Lifeng, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as well as other officials and ambassadors from Beijing.
“Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can fully coexist, strengthen each other, and benefit the world,” Xi said in the statement carried by Xinhua, also expressing his confidence that the visit will “produce fruitful results.”
It was not clear whether Xi took any business leaders with him. Bringing Chinese companies to the United States may also raise questions about Chinese corporate practices, government support, and excess production capacity, issues that may bring more criticism and questions than Xi or his party would like.
It is noteworthy that during Trump's visit to Beijing in May, he was accompanied by a group of senior officials from American technology companies, including Tim Cook from Apple, Elon Musk from Tesla, and Jensen Huang from NVIDIA.
Leaders of US artificial intelligence companies are scheduled to attend the lavish state dinner scheduled for Thursday, with Xi's visit concluding on Friday.
Trump had described recent warnings issued from within the technology sector regarding the potential dangers of artificial intelligence as a "hoax", while the two countries are racing to achieve supremacy in this sector.
According to David Firestein, director of the Bush Foundation China, Trump will seek to conclude other agreements related to trade and tariffs, such as reducing Chinese duties on American products, increasing imports of rare earth metals from China, and increasing exports of American agricultural products.
However, China appears to have backed away from its promises to buy more American agricultural products and sell more rare earth minerals to the United States.
Feierstein expects Chinese President Xi to encourage his counterpart Trump to further stall - or even cancel - a $14 billion (£10.5 billion) arms sale to Taiwan that Congress had approved, as well as deepen trade integration between the US and China.
Firestein pointed out that these issues between the United States and China are eternal and have been ongoing for a long time, but “it seems that this time there is greater stability in the relationship, or less fluctuations, compared to the situation we were in last year, 2025.”
Xi's visit comes at a time when American attitudes toward China appear to be improving.
A recent poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs showed that 41 percent of Americans see China's regional ambitions as a threat to the United States, a percentage lower than it was in 2022, when it reached 52 percent.
In addition to the reception ceremony at the White House, Melania Trump planned to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, in order to inform her Chinese counterpart of the cultural ties that unite the two countries.
This important visit will conclude with an event of a historic nature in the “National Archives” building, where the two leaders and their wives will review important documents and records, including documents that Washington described as “of great importance to US-Chinese relations.”
