President Donald Trump has rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping amid ongoing tensions between the two superpowers on a range of issues from the future of AI to global trade.
Xi’s first state visit to the U.S. in over a decade got underway in Washington D.C. Thursday with much fanfare, including a military ceremony, a flyover at the Rose Garden and Chinese flags waving from the Oval Office roof.
But the meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies comes as Trump faces international backlash for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to Miami’s G20 gathering in December despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Trump, who has dubbed his relationship with Xi the ‘G2’, said their meeting would have an impact on the world for decades to come and cover a wide range of issues.
“During this visit, we will also discuss pressing issues concerning security, technology, and 'super intelligence’,” Trump said, using his alternative name for artificial intelligence.
“The decisions we make in these areas today can promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come.”
Xi will be treated to a state dinner involving tech CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Open AI’s Sam Altman, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai.
But analysts cautioned that the intense competition between the two countries in AI is likely to limit the scope for anything beyond symbolic agreements.
Xi used his initial address to emphasise that the U.S. has the “capability and responsibility to manage AI for good”.
“China, U.S. cooperation may not solve every problem in the world, but without our cooperation, it would be hard to solve many of the world's problems,” he said.
Xi voiced hope for a more stable relationship with the United States, saying Beijing and Washington should be “partners, not rivals” and that the “historical logic of peaceful coexistence” between the two countries had not changed.
The pair are expected to discuss the ongoing Iran war but there has been little sign China is willing to exert pressure on its ally to yield to U.S. demands. Trump has been warned about the relationship between Tehran and Beijing as the war he started in February continues with no end in sight.
“The president needs to tell Xi Jinping that this is a dangerous alliance,” Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, told Fox News ahead of the visit.
“The Chinese assistance to the Iranian regime has actually expanded on a number of fronts,” he warned, citing the provision of drone parts and motors, dual use chemicals, alleged assistance with targeting and an economic relationship.
Disputes over Taiwan could remain the most contentious issue as Xi is expected to press Trump to halt arms sales to the democratically governed island claimed by China. Sources told Reuters said that Beijing is offering to help put pressure on Iran in return.
After their meeting in May, Trump had said he was holding in abeyance an arms package to Taiwan worth some $14 billion and called it a “very good negotiating chip.”
Trump, known to be impressed with ceremony and symbolic gestures, has attempted to reciprocate the grand welcome he received when he made his own state visit to China in May.
On Wednesday evening he greeted Xi with a red carpet on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews - the first time that a U.S. president has welcomed a foreign leader in that manner since President Barack Obama met Pope Francis in 2015s.
