An American president almost never travels to welcome a foreign leader at the airport. But Donald Trump did it on Wednesday for China's Xi Jinping, while Washington announced at the same time an extension of the trade truce with Beijing.
The Air China plane landed around 9:40 p.m. GMT (11:40 p.m. in Paris) at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, where soldiers in full uniform and fighter jets had been lined up in honor of the three-day visit.
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The US president, accompanied by Melania Trump, shook hands with his counterpart, who is traveling with his wife Peng Liyuan, before the two couples returned to the red carpet to take part in a brief arrival ceremony including a fighter jet flyby. Everyone then went their separate ways.
“Economic relaxation”
The two leaders will meet at the White House on Thursday, for the announced highlight of a visit which has already achieved its main goal. The United States and China have indeed decided to extend their trade truce until January 10, announced American Finance Minister Scott Bessent.
“We agreed (Wednesday) to extend (...) the economic detente between our two countries which was to end on November 10 (...) in order to give us more time to see what we can do on the economic level,” he declared on the Fox News channel.
The two superpowers decided in October 2025 to put an end to an escalation of customs duties and restrictive trade measures, which had shaken the entire world economy.
Trump shakes up protocol
Typically, foreign heads of state are greeted on the tarmac by lower-ranking officials and only meet the US president when they arrive at the White House. But Donald Trump is shaking up protocol for a head of state with whom he claims to have particular affinities, whereas Xi Jinping approaches their relationship with more pragmatism, according to Judith Shapiro, a China specialist at American University. The Chinese president “considers that the rise of China as well as the decline of the United States is inevitable,” and that therefore the bilateral relationship must be “managed with the greatest sensitivity” to avoid open confrontation, she said.
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The planned splendor, including another flight over the White House by military planes, sparked rare criticism from a high-ranking Republican elected official. “Our commander in chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal dictator ... whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States,” said Senator Roger Wicker.
Beyond the trade truce, the experts interviewed by AFP do not foresee a breakthrough on other thorny issues, including artificial intelligence or access to Chinese rare earths, nor any major blows on sensitive diplomatic issues, including American military support for Taiwan and Beijing's alliance with Iran.
Xi, “a great leader” according to Musk
Donald Trump undoubtedly hopes to relegate his major political difficulties to the background for a time, while satisfying his taste for ceremonial pomp. The Republican president, falling in the polls because of the cost of living, risks losing control of Congress after legislative elections in November.
On Thursday, the Chinese leader will be treated to all the pomp of a state visit with a new military welcome ceremony at the White House, accompanied by cannon fire and the flyby of a B-2 bomber flanked by F-22 Raptor jets, as well as a gala dinner attended by the big names in American tech, including the bosses of OpenAI Sam Altman and Nvidia Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX and X). The latter judged in an interview with Chinese television that Xi Jinping was “a great leader”. “Under his leadership, China has prospered enormously,” he assured. The Chinese president did not bring a delegation of business leaders, an American source told AFP.
On Friday, Donald and Melania Trump will receive their guests for tea at the White House and then visit the National Archives in Washington with them. This is Xi Jinping's first visit to the White House in more than ten years, and his third meeting with Donald Trump since the latter returned to power. Two more could follow before the end of the year, during the APEC summit in China and the G20 in Florida.
