Trump welcomes Xi to the second state dinner at the White House

Washington, Beijing. It's Thursday morning in Washington. China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan are welcomed by US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania for the second time. The evening before, Trump had personally picked up Xi at the airport - a highly unusual honor for a state guest.

Images of American soldiers kneeling to remove the last lint from the red carpet shortly before Xi's arrival went around the world. The entire day follows the script of grand gestures by the American host: This also includes the flyover of fighter jets in formation.

For years, the USA has classified China as a threat in its official strategy documents. Beijing is becoming increasingly offensive in the South China Sea and is suspected of supporting not only Russia in the Ukraine war, but also Iran in its conflict with the USA. In a rare address to the nation in July, Trump also accused China of rigging the 2020 US presidential election - the election he lost to Joe Biden.

“We have never gotten along better,” Trump enthuses a few minutes before the big state dinner in honor of Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan. 134 guests are invited. At Trump and Xi's table, dressed in traditional Chinese suits, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang and Apple boss Tim Cook sat down with their wives. Other guests include Open AI boss Sam Altmann, major Trump donor Miriam Adelson and his influential AI advisor David Sacks. Representatives of Chinese companies are not there.

Trump had previously denied major US television networks access to the White House - an unprecedented move. Against this background, Xi's words, who have increasingly tightened press censorship in China in recent years, sounded almost unintentionally cynical: "Thanks to you, we felt at home," he praised. He can be seen smiling in several photos, a rare image.

Xi partially reciprocated his host's grand gestures. At the beginning of the meeting he announced: “The Thucydides Trap can be overcome.” This describes the risk of war between a rising and an established world power. He also announced that he would give the USA two pandas - a diplomatic tool with a long tradition.

Because the relationship is so difficult beyond grand gestures, expectations for the meeting were low. In fact, little of substance had leaked out until Thursday evening local time.

Most notable was Xi's indirect praise for Trump's presumed stance on Taiwan. He hopes that the US side “sticks to the correct stance of rejecting ‘Taiwan independence’,” said an official statement from the Foreign Ministry in Beijing. What Xi's statement referred to initially remained unclear.

China has long demanded that the United States openly reject the island's independence. In fact, the official US position so far has been that Washington “does not support” Taiwan independence – a big difference from Xi’s formulation of “rejecting” independence.

The communist government claims sovereignty over the independently governed, democratic island, although it has never ruled there. The “unification” of Taiwan with China is considered Xi’s life goal. The USA, on the other hand, is considered Taiwan's most important protecting power. Xi apparently sees Trump, who thinks in terms of deals and cares little about diplomatic customs, as a historic opportunity to achieve his goal and dissuade Trump from providing military assistance to Taiwan in the worst case scenario.

After the two leaders' last meeting in Beijing in May, Trump described the decision to deliver a record arms shipment to Taiwan worth $14 billion as a "good negotiating tool" with the Chinese leadership - a novelty in relations. So far he has not given any approval, much to Beijing's satisfaction.

It initially remained unclear whether Xi's favorable statement on US policy towards Taiwan referred to the withheld arms shipment or whether Trump may have moved away from the official US position. Beijing has also claimed in official readouts in the past that governments support its “One China principle,” which was not true.

At midday, Trump and Xi met for around two hours for talks in small and large circles. “Great meeting,” Trump shouted to reporters as Xi left the White House. Nothing more was known about it from the American side.

According to the official statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in addition to Taiwan, Trump and Xi also discussed trade, artificial intelligence (AI), the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Xi stressed that the economic and trade teams of both sides held a new round of consultations and reached a new joint agreement. He didn't give any details. However, at the last meeting in Beijing, the results of the talks were only announced piecemeal afterwards.

US negotiator and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had already announced when Xi arrived in Washington that the standstill agreement in the trade conflict between the two countries had been extended by two months. This means that additional US tariffs on Chinese imports will remain suspended until January 10th. In return, China will allow the export of rare earths and permanent magnets to the USA. So far, Beijing has not confirmed this agreement.

If the standstill agreement is actually only extended by two months, it would be a bitter disappointment for the Chinese side, but also for many in the business community who had hoped for longer-term planning. The USA rejected this and wants to continue negotiating, also because, in their view, China is not sufficiently adhering to previous agreements. Exports of rare earths to the USA fell by 20 percent in August compared to the previous month.

Bessent spoke of the possibility of a “bigger deal” with China and emphasized that the two leaders would meet twice more this year. From the point of view of observers, the relatively short extension of the standstill agreement makes it more likely that Trump will travel to the APEC summit in Shenzhen, southern China, in November and Xi to the G20 summit in Florida in December.

So far there is no evidence that China and the USA have been able to agree on non-critical areas in which trade should take place without or with very low tariffs. Before the meeting there was talk of a “Board of Trade” identifying them.

Xi and Trump also wanted to talk about dealing with artificial intelligence. In recent months, discussion about the risks of the technology has boiled over due to several incidents in which AI models hacked into other systems on their own.

Trump set the tone in a post on his Truth Social platform shortly before the talks: “I want to leave it exactly as it is,” he wrote. “That is also China’s position.”

China elaborated on the AI ​​talks: "Both sides should leverage their respective strengths in AI instead of distrusting each other," Xi said. Both sides should be able to continue the dialogue on AI, exchange views on its risks and benefits, and work together to prevent the misuse and misuse of AI.