Donald Trump received Chinese President Xi Jinping directly on the tarmac of Join Base Andrews, in a very rare move by the head of the White House towards a foreign leader. The two shook hands in the presence of their respective first ladies, Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, surrounded by a composite guard of honor for the welcome ceremony. A series of US military jets are also deployed on the runway. On the table at the summit between the two leaders scheduled for today are the Taiwan dossier, the war in Iran and artificial intelligence but also economic and national security interests. "Our two countries must be partners rather than rivals," Xi said according to written statements published by the state news agency Xinhua. He added that "the Chinese and US peoples have long enjoyed friendly exchanges, and our interests are deeply intertwined."
Third face-to-face in a year
The two leaders of China and the USA, aged 73 and 80 respectively, meet again in Washington almost four months after the previous meeting, which took place in Beijing in May and ended in a stalemate after months of mutual back and forth on tariffs. Now the third face-to-face meeting between the two presidents in a year could lead to an extension of the trade truce, agreed in October last year and expiring in November, after Sunday's meeting in New York between Chinese Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The themes
According to what was reported by Reuters, which cites informed Chinese sources, in tomorrow's meeting Xi Jinping will ask Donald Trump to stop the sale of US arms to Taiwan, recalling the Sino-US agreement of 1982. Beijing has also asked the US to stop deliveries of armaments already ordered by Taipei: a new arms package for Taiwan worth around 14 billion dollars which Trump, however, has not yet approved. China's objective, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, would be to get Trump to express himself clearly against the independence of Taiwan, a de facto independent island that claims its democracy against Beijing which, instead, wants reunification with China even, if necessary, with the use of force. In exchange, according to Reuters, China would offer greater cooperation in putting pressure on Iran in the Middle East conflict. Then the question of duties and artificial intelligence. As regards the first point, as highlighted by New York Times analysts, China could agree to increase purchases of agricultural products. Regarding safety in the field of AI, however, expectations are low.
In-depth analysis
Xi Jinping at the White House by Trump, the key themes of the meeting
Chinese ambassador to the US: "There are red lines"
On the eve of the summit, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, made it known that China has "red lines", including Taiwan and human rights, that cannot be crossed. The ambassador, speaking to the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily, said that managing differences depends on good faith and that the US should stop "manufacturing pretexts", such as national security, economic imbalances and forced labor, to try to contain China. When Beijing and Washington cooperate, Xie Feng pointed out, both benefit, but when they clash, both suffer the consequences. "China's sovereignty, security and development interests cannot be violated, and four red lines - the Taiwan issue, democracy and human rights, development paths and systems, and the right to development - cannot be questioned," the ambassador wrote, adding: "China is committed to pursuing peaceful development and hopes that the United States will also move in this direction."
