Trump hosts Xi at White House banquet amid limited summit progress

Sea bass, baby bok choy and a bald eagle were featured at a lavish White House banquet hosted by United States President Donald Trump for China's President Xi Jinping as part of their three-day summit.

Both leaders spoke about their history of shared trade and diplomacy, after a meeting earlier that day that had little breakthrough on thorny topics like artificial intelligence, Taiwan and the US war with Iran.

In attendance at the black-tie dinner were some of the heads of the US's largest finance and technology companies, while most of China's guests were high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders.

Mr Trump said it was a "great honour" to welcome the Chinese president and his wife, and added he hoped to reciprocate the same honour and hospitality he was shown in May when he visited Beijing.

Mr Xi said the two leaders had now exchanged two visits in less than half a year, "making history in [our] bilateral engagement".

Leaders hail shared history

Mr Trump also used his speech to compare both countries' different political systems, with China drawing on thousands of years of tradition and the US's based on Judaeo-Christian faith and democracy's ideals, but said "ties between its people endured".

"We have never gotten along better," he said.

Mr Xi used his opening speech to highlight their shared goals — both wanted to see their respective countries prosper, but needed to act as "responsible major countries".

He also said that they had a "sincere and in-depth exchange" which gave them a "new strategic guidance" on their bilateral relationship, but did not elaborate.

Mr Xi also said both countries needed to "meet the expectations of our peoples, keep pace with the trend of our times, and explore a new approach for major countries to get along with each other".

He also highlighted the "hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives" sacrificed to help the US during Japanese aggression in World War II.

"Such a friendship forged in blood and fire will surely live on through the generations."

Mr Trump also gifted Mr Xi with a bald eagle sculpture that he and his wife, Melania, helped design with an American artist.

"The bald eagle is a national symbol of the United States and an embodiment of the free and soaring spirit of America," Mr Trump said.

"We hope it'll find a nice place, a wonderful place in Beijing."

Orville Schell, an author and China expert at the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, was sceptical of the Washington summit.

"This rates very low in terms of actual accomplishments," he told the ABC.

He said while Mr Trump lavished "theatrics" on Xi Jinping, there was still no resolution to any of the fundamental issues that divided the US and China such as AI regulation.

Mr Schell said Mr Xi was not criticised for his human rights record like in previous years, while Mr Trump overly praised his counterpart.

One deal made between the US and China will extend their existing trade agreement, which was due to expire in November, for another two months.

It will see China continue to sell rare earths to the US while tariffs will remain the same.

"But this is a very tenuous status quo, and a very small return on this second summit," he said.

China's business leaders absent

Seen at the dinner were SpaceX's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Nvidia president Jensen Huang.

Notably, business leaders from China were absent.

Instead, named attendees included Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee; China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi; Vice-Premier He Lifeng; China's ambassador to the US; and officials from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Minran Liu, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Queensland, said the lack of Chinese business representation could be because expectations for major commercial deals were low.

"This visit is less about showcasing commercial wins, connections and deals, and more about trying to manage those issues both countries are interested in pursuing or managing," Dr Liu said.

Outside the White House, groups of pro-Tibet and pro-CCP protesters gathered ahead of the dinner, but were kept separate by police.

Chants of slogans like "China out of Hong Kong" and "Free Tibet" could be heard from the red carpet as the leaders and guests arrived.

Both Mr Trump and Mr Xi are expected to meet each other twice later this year, at the 2026 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen and the G20 Leaders' Summit in Miami.