China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, are rival countries, but they better understand each other. This has been the message that the respective presidents, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, have repeated, directly and indirectly, during their summit this Thursday in a very decorated White House, which has made an extravagance of pageantry to receive its guest and in which the two have wanted to show off their harmony. "Beijing and Washington should not necessarily refrain from competing. But that competition must be friendly and healthy, not a fight in which one loses and the other wins," stressed the Chinese leader, who considered that the two countries have the "capacity and responsibility" to manage artificial intelligence effectively.
Keeping the relationship stable and preventing any of the many deep disagreements between the two rivals from derailing it was the main objective of the meeting, which Trump described as “a very good meeting” and which lasted around an hour and a half. At first glance, little time to analyze a relationship as broad and complicated as that between Beijing and Washington. But the sensitive issues had already been discussed previously, in two meetings between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Sunday and Wednesday. Both resulted in modest agreements to extend the trade truce between the two countries for two more months, which was set to expire on November 10, and to explore a communication mechanism in the event of artificial intelligence incidents that affect national security.
The two leaders, who share a good personal relationship, broke with protocol at the end of the two-hour meeting in the Oval Office: the American took the Chinese to the gardens of the White House so that he could get on his presidential helicopter, Marine One, see the new helipad and the construction work on the new ballroom of the presidential residence. Xi “is an expert in stone, among many other things, and appreciates good granite,” the Republican said, to a half smile from his guest.
Shortly before, Xi had made his own display of bonhomie, announcing the upcoming arrival of a pair of Chinese giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, to the Atlanta Zoo, in a new episode of the “panda diplomacy” that Beijing often resorts to.
The two leaders planned to address all kinds of topics during their meeting, from the war in Iran to Taiwan, to artificial intelligence and bilateral trade. All of them issues as fundamental as they are thorny in the relationship between the two colossi. According to the Chinese news agency The Chinese leader “expressed the hope that the United States will maintain its correct position of opposing Taiwan 'independence' and handle the matter prudently.”
China has been pressuring the United States to stop supplying weapons to Taiwan, although Washington is obliged by law to support the democratic island. After the May summit in the Chinese capital between Trump and Xi, the Republican Administration postponed a $14 billion arms sale. Trump has described the arms sale to Taipei as “a very good negotiating tool” for dealing with Beijing.
AI also seemed to be at the forefront of the two leaders' concerns at the meeting. Both expressly referred to this technology, in which their respective countries aspire to be leaders. "Both China and the United States are great powers in artificial intelligence; we have the capacity and responsibility to develop and manage AI effectively, ensuring that its development remains under human control and benefits the population," Xi declared in his speech at the beginning of the meeting. Immediately before receiving his guest, Trump had written on his social network, Truth, that AI would be “a great issue to debate” but that he wants to “leave it exactly as it is.” “This is also China's position,” he added.
The two governments consider that advances in this technology are fundamental for their economic and military competitiveness. The United States has on several occasions accused China of developing its models by taking advantage of American ones. On Sunday, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and Scott Bessent, Secretary of State for the Treasury, agreed to formalize a dialogue on AI, study a communication channel for incidents affecting national security and meet again in November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen (south China).
On the eve of the meeting, the United States had announced a temporary solution to another of the major disagreements in the relationship. The tariff truce agreed between the two governments last year and which expired on November 10 will be extended until January 10, to give the two parties more time to negotiate something more lasting, as explained by Bessent, after an off-schedule meeting with the Chinese Vice Premier, He, on Wednesday.
To alleviate the rest of the disagreements and stabilize a relationship that is as fundamental as it is complicated, the two countries have resorted to a medicine much to Trump's liking: pomp, entertainment and deference. Throughout this Thursday, he offered his guest a welcome ceremony, an inspection of troops, a military exhibition, a flyover of the most modern war planes in the United States and - the tribute of tributes, in Trump's eyes - the supervision of the works on the Ballroom. The pageantry will continue in the coming hours with a state dinner to which some of the giants of American technology are invited, from the CEO of OpenAi, Sam Altman, to the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook.
At the beginning of the summit, Xi invoked the convenience of promoting “strategic stability” between both countries at a time of great geopolitical instability. “The interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined,” he said.
Trump, for his part, went a little further in his enthusiasm when defining the relationship that, according to him, unites both presidents: “We have a truly great friendship,” he stated.
Xi's reception on Wednesday was an extraordinary reception: before Trump, the last time a US leader had gone to the airport to receive a foreign leader for a state visit had been in 1962, when John F Kennedy also traveled to Andrews to welcome British Prime Minister Harold McMillan. These were the times of the “special relationship” between London and Washington.
Since then, the understood protocol rule that indicates that a US president receives foreign leaders at the White House or, if he sees them outside of Washington, at the place where they are going to meet and not at the airport, has only been broken very rarely. Last year, Trump welcomed Vladimir Putin, Russia's president and theoretical adversary, at Elmendorf-Richardson Air Base in Alaska, before their summit there. But that meeting did not have the level of a state visit.
The two leaders aspire to maintain the “strategic stability” to which they alluded in May and continue to move forward with the trade truce agreed upon last year at their meeting in South Korea, without the ups and downs in the bilateral meeting distracting them from their particular internal problems. The Chinese president wants calm to focus on his country's ailing economy. Trump has the Iran war on the table and a midterm election around the corner next November.
It is the second time that the two leaders have met so far this year, after their meeting in Beijing in May. There will be two more before the end of 2026. Both will take place once the United States has held its midterm elections and it has become clear whether the Republicans maintain absolute control of the American powers - or if, as the polls suggest, the Democrats manage to take control of Congress.
Xi and Trump, both convinced that the key to stability in the bilateral relationship is to maintain regular contact between the two, plan to meet again in November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum summit in Shenzhen and at the G20 summit in Miami, in December.
