Politics
Trump greets Xi at the tarmac as Chinese president opens first US state visit in a decade
September 23, 2026 at 10:58 PM · Updated 22d ago
Coverage
14 reports · 11 in Arabic, 3 in English · over 10 hours
Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on Wednesday for his first state visit to the US in a decade, greeted personally at the tarmac by Trump.
- Trump and first lady Melania Trump met Xi at his plane at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, an unusually direct tarmac welcome.
- Xi's three-day visit includes a White House state dinner Thursday with executives from OpenAI, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Meta.
- Agenda topics include trade and tariffs, with the US–China tariff truce set to expire in November.
- Talks will also cover AI and chip competition, rare-earth export controls, Taiwan arms sales and Iran.
- Senate Republican leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against easing restrictions on semiconductor chip exports to China in trade or political deals ahead of the summit.
- Xi's visit follows his May meeting in Beijing, his second encounter with Trump in about four months.
- China's foreign ministry said the two leaders will discuss bilateral relations and international issues.
- Xi was received on a red carpet with a military flyover of two B-1 bombers during the formal ceremony at Joint Base Andrews.
- Xi Jinping said Washington and Beijing should be 'partners, not adversaries,' hours after arriving for the three-day state visit.
- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides agreed to extend their trade truce, due to expire November 10, by two months.
- Bessent announced the extension followed marathon talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York and Washington.
- Bessent said the two sides may also reduce tariffs on $30 billion of non-sensitive goods.









