Trump personally went to the airport to greet Xi Jinping, the first courtesy from a US president in more than 60 years.

Published September 19, 2026

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Xi Jinping arrived in the United States for a state visit at about 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday (September 23), and Trump personally picked him up at Joint Base Andrews on the outskirts of Washington, which is a rare diplomatic standard.

Excluding the exception of the Pope's visit to the United States, this will be the first time in more than 60 years that a US president has greeted a head of state in this way.

This decision takes place at a time when Sino-US relations are still under the shadow of trade friction and technological competition, so its symbolic significance has attracted special attention.

BBC Chinese sorted out the diplomatic logic behind this arrangement from three aspects: historical precedents, changes in the interactive protocol between China and the United States, and the reception standards received by Xi Jinping during his recent visits.

How rare is it in history?

It is not unheard of for the President of the United States to personally greet visiting heads of state at the airport, but cases are concentrated in certain eras.

Information from the Kennedy Presidential Library shows that in the 1960s, then-President John F. Kennedy personally went to Andrews Air Force Base to greet visiting foreign heads of state many times, including Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba, Peruvian President Manuel Prado, Ecuadorian President Carlos Julio Arosemena, and Guinean President Sekou Toure. Sékou Touré), and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, etc.

But what is different from now is that in the early days of Kennedy's administration, instead of picking him up at the airport, the welcome ceremony was held directly at the airport.

In the late years of Kennedy's administration, he frequently traveled through Washington to greet foreign guests at the airport, which often caused traffic jams. Therefore, he reformed this protocol ceremony and officially designated the South Lawn of the White House as the official welcome stage for the arrival of foreign guests. Afterwards, after the foreign guests arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, they were picked up by the Chief of Protocol and taken by helicopter to the White House, where the President held a welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn. This became American diplomatic practice.

Therefore, what is more comparable is that in 1959, then President Dwight D. Eisenhower personally went to Andrews Air Force Base to greet Soviet Supreme Leader Nikita Khrushchev at the bottom of the gangway. Moreover, this was publicly and widely reported in advance at the time, and was regarded as a subtle and rare courtesy in the Cold War.

However, in recent years, the Roman Catholic Pope has been an exception in terms of protocol arrangements: in 1987, Ronald Reagan welcomed Pope John Paul II at the Miami Airport; in 1999, Bill Clinton welcomed Pope John Paul II again at the airport; in 2008, George W. Bush and his wife welcomed Pope Benedict XVI at Andrews Air Force Base. XVI); In 2015, Barack Obama and his wife welcomed Pope Francis at Joint Base Andrews.

In the past 11 years, no pope has visited the United States.

Compared with China’s reception of Trump

If the news from the White House is true, the standards of the US arrangements this time have exceeded the level when China received Trump in May this year. When Trump arrived in Beijing, he was greeted at the airport by Han Zheng, vice president of the country and former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

When Trump visited China during his first term, the person who picked him up at the airport was Yang Jiechi, then member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and State Councilor. At that time, Yang Jiechi had actual decision-making power in China's foreign affairs field. He belonged to the rank of "party and state leaders" and his status was already relatively high.

The President of the United States has always enjoyed higher courtesy than other foreign heads of state in China's reception sequence. When most foreign heads of state visit China, the officials who receive them at the airport are usually at the ministerial level. For example, when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited China, they were received at the airport by the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance respectively.

It is worth mentioning that according to the itinerary disclosed to reporters by the White House, Xi Jinping’s wife Peng Liyuan will accompany him to visit the United States, which can be regarded as a friendly signal, because when Trump visited China in May, his wife Melania Trump did not accompany him.

How China receives foreign leaders

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China, he enjoyed a reception similar to that of the American president. In May this year, he was picked up by Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister; when he went to Tianjin to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in August 2025, he was picked up by Chen Min'er, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

When North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un visited China, he was personally greeted by Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. It is extremely rare for one of the Seven Standing Committee members to come out to greet him. However, this treatment continues the alliance-style "brotherhood" between China and North Korea that originated from the Cold War era, and does not belong to China's regular sequence of foreign reception.

Outside the conventional diplomatic framework, there have been two visits by U.S. presidents to China in history where the level of reception exceeded that of Putin and Kim Jong-un. In 1972, when Richard Nixon visited China on his "ice-breaking trip", China and the United States had not yet established diplomatic relations. Premier Zhou Enlai went to the airport to greet him in person, a level that has not been surpassed to this day.

The other time was Obama's first visit to China in 2009, and he was picked up by then Vice President Xi Jinping. At that time, Xi Jinping was also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice President of the country, and had been recognized as his successor. This arrangement was generally regarded as an extraordinary courtesy.

During Obama's second term, the United States launched the "Rebalancing to Asia" strategy. Sino-US relations experienced twists and turns, and the candidate to pick him up was immediately downgraded to Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The rise and fall of pick-up candidates has thus become one of the barometers for observing the direction of Sino-US relations.

Leaders Xi Jinping has experienced pick him up at the airport

In recent years, it is no longer a rare event for Xi Jinping to be personally picked up by foreign leaders during his overseas visits.

The most recent time was when he visited North Korea on June 8 this year, Kim Jong-un personally greeted him at the airport. This continues the tradition of Chinese leaders visiting North Korea: previous visits to North Korea by Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, and even earlier when Zhou Enlai visited North Korea as prime minister, they were all personally greeted at the airport by North Korea's top leader.

It sometimes happens that heads of other countries personally go to the airport to greet Xi Jinping, but they usually need to meet two conditions: first, they have close relations with China, and second, the country is small. When Xi Jinping visited Serbia in 2024, President Aleksandar Vučić greeted him at the tarmac; when he visited Hungary in the same year, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán greeted him at the airport; when he visited Cambodia in 2025, King Norodom Sihamoni greeted him at the airport.

An earlier special case occurred in July 2014. On his way to Brazil to attend the BRICS Summit, Xi Jinping made a technical stop in Rhodes, Greece. Technical stops usually only involve refueling and a short rest, and no formal diplomatic activities are scheduled. However, the then Greek President Karolos Papoulias and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras made a special trip from Athens to Rhodes to greet Xi Jinping at the airport and hold talks. It is extremely rare for the top leaders of the two countries to travel across the city for a stopover.

The background of this super-standard reception was that Greece was still deeply involved in the European debt crisis, the economic and employment situation was grim, and it was subject to severe financial constraints from the international bailout plan. It was in urgent need of foreign investment and infrastructure projects to support recovery. Xi Jinping's trip comes only about ten months after he proposed the "One Belt, One Road" initiative. After this meeting, economic and trade cooperation between China and Greece accelerated significantly: two years later, in 2016, COSCO Shipping obtained a controlling stake in the operator of the Piraeus Port and continued to increase investment in the development of the port.

Overview of Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States revealed by international news agencies

September 23 (Wednesday)

Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan arrived at Joint Base Andrews.

September 24 (Thursday): Talks and state banquet

Trump will welcome Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan at the White House.

The two sides then moved to the Rose Garden for a ceremonial review before launching bilateral talks.

September 25 (Friday): Tea, visit and departure

Trump and his wife will host a tea party for Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan at the White House.

The two parties then went to the National Archives in Washington to view the founding documents of the United States.