Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States: A state dinner was held at the White House, and leaders of the United States and China met on bilateral relations and international issues

After being greeted by the Trumps and his wife at the airport in person, Xi Jinping went to the White House with his wife Peng Liyuan on the second day of his state visit to the United States (September 24), and was once again given a very grand welcome.

Trump and Xi Jinping delivered speeches respectively at the welcome ceremony, reviewed the honor guard, and watched the US military's assassination performance. Xi Jinping said that in the next five years, 100,000 American teenagers will be invited to China for exchange and study, and he announced that giant pandas "Pingping" and "Fushuang" will soon settle in the Atlanta Zoo in Georgia, southern United States.

However, although the White House broadcast the welcome ceremony live through video websites and other platforms, none of the major American television stations broadcast it live to protest the Trump administration's ban on three media outlets, including CNN, from entering the White House. According to US media reports, it was not until close to noon that reporters from CNN and three other media were allowed to enter the White House. On the 24th, a federal judge temporarily halted the White House’s “no entry” order against CNN and three other American media.

After the welcoming ceremony, Xi Jinping and Trump held a meeting for about three hours. According to Chinese official reports, during the bilateral talks, Xi Jinping said that he would "work in the direction of giving priority to cooperation, moderate competition, controllable differences, and hope for peace, and find a correct way for the two major countries to get along with each other."

The outside world had previously expected that Xi Jinping would put pressure on Trump to stop arms sales to Taiwan during his visit. After Trump's visit to China in May, he said he was suspending an arms sales plan to Taiwan worth about $14 billion, calling it a "very good bargaining chip." This move has triggered concerns among some U.S. allies in Asia and even some within Trump’s Republican Party. They worry Trump could undermine Washington's support for Taipei in exchange for economic benefits.

On the eve of the meeting between U.S. and Chinese leaders in Washington, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng wrote in an article that "China and the United States are a win-win for cooperation, but a lose-lose for confrontation." "China's sovereignty, security, and development interests cannot be violated, and the four red lines of the Taiwan issue, democracy and human rights, road systems, and development rights cannot be challenged."

Chinese official reports also said that Xi Jinping said that "the two sides can continue to carry out dialogue on artificial intelligence, communicate on its risks and benefits, and jointly prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence." In addition, "the two heads of state also exchanged views on major international and regional issues such as the situation in the Middle East, the crisis in Ukraine, and the Korean Peninsula." Trump recently said that the United States is in the "decision-making stage" on the Iran issue, while China has expressed its position of "encouraging Iran and the United States to maintain rationality and restraint," restructure the negotiation mechanism, and conduct substantive consultations. But there are few signs that Beijing is willing to pressure Iran to meet U.S. demands.

The White House has not yet released an official summary of the White House talks between Trump and Xi. China’s official report stated: “Trump said that President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States is a great visit. The United States and China are both major countries, and President Xi Jinping and I are good friends and maintain in-depth and close communication. Under our leadership, U.S.-China relations will definitely be improved.”

Edgard Kagan, the former White House director for East Asia and now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), believes that the contrasting rhetorical tones of Xi Jinping and Trump reflect their different strategies: "President Trump framed the meeting as largely a personal relationship between him and Xi Jinping. Interestingly, Xi Jinping's attitude was much more cautious. He suggested that this was more about the relationship between countries than a personal relationship."

On the day Xi Jinping visited Washington, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent announced that the United States and China had agreed to extend the trade truce for two months. This may mean that China will delay plans to impose stricter restrictions on rare earth exports that were originally scheduled to be implemented from November 10.

The welcoming state banquet held by Trump for Xi Jinping and his wife in the East Room of the White House on the evening of September 24 also reflected Trump’s passion for ceremony and luxury, his admiration for wealth and elites, and his style of not sticking to traditional etiquette.

The dinner menu announced by the White House includes yellow squash bisque, sesame-crusted sea bass and vanilla butter mousse with White House honey ice cream. The same sparkling wine used when Nixon visited China in 1972 was used for the toast. The decoration of the dinner hall highlighted the festive significance of the color red in Chinese history and culture, paying tribute to Chinese culture with red tablecloths, red dahlias, etc., as well as gold-plated silverware from the Reagan State Banquet collected by the White House.

The dinner was attended by American billionaires and CEOs of well-known companies, including many technology giants, such as Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk of Tesla and Jensen Huang of Nvidia. However, representatives from Anthropic, a company that has recently warned highly about the risks of artificial intelligence, did not show up.

During the toast, Trump once went off-script and introduced the new White House ballroom project to Xi Jinping. Finally, Trump also presented Xi Jinping with a bald eagle statue. The bald eagle is native to North America and is the national symbol of the United States. Trump said the statue was "designed personally by Melania and I" and said the bald eagle symbolizes "the soaring spirit of America."

While the White House welcomed Xi Jinping's visit with a high profile, a number of Tibetans, Hong Kong people and Xinjiang ethnic minority groups held protests in Lafayette Square just north of the White House and outside the Chinese Embassy in the United States. The protesters chanted the slogan "Freedom for Tibet" and held placards with the words "Keep Taiwan Free" and "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times". Former House Speaker Pelosi attended and spoke at an event organized by Free Tibet.