Xi heads to Washington for Trump talks on trade, AI and rare earths
Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Washington next week for a state visit centred on high-level talks with US President Donald Trump, with trade, artificial intelligence and rare earth minerals expected to be on the agenda. It will be the first state visit by a Chinese leader to the United States in more than a decade.
The visit will combine formal White House events with closed-door discussions. Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, are scheduled to attend an arrival ceremony, a state dinner, a private tea with Trump and first lady Melania Trump, and a tour of the National Archives before departing from Joint Base Andrews.
Senior administration officials told reporters that Trump will personally welcome Xi when his plane lands at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, an unusual step as he typically meets foreign leaders at the White House.
The main events of the visit are set for Thursday, when Trump and the first lady will welcome Xi and Peng at an indoor arrival ceremony on the State Floor of the White House. Trump and Xi will also take part in a review of troops in the Rose Garden before holding talks behind closed doors. During that time, Melania Trump and Peng will attend a separate engagement, though officials did not release details.
Later on Thursday, Xi and Peng will be the guests of honour at a state dinner hosted by Trump and the first lady in the East Room. Both leaders are expected to deliver remarks. Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said, "Thousands of people would love to be at that dinner," and added, "This is a very tough ticket for me." He also said, "I've told a lot of very good friends of mine, you just can't come."
The White House said several technology industry leaders have been invited to the dinner, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Google's Sundar Pichai and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell. The guest list also includes Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Tim Cook, who recently stepped down as Apple CEO.
Xi and Peng are due to return to the White House the following Friday for a private tea with the Trumps. After that, Trump and Melania Trump will take them on a tour of the National Archives, which houses key founding documents of the United States, as the country marks its 250th anniversary. Xi will then leave for Joint Base Andrews.
US officials said Washington and Beijing may be ready to ease some tariffs on a narrow range of non-strategic goods in a move that could benefit both sides. However, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under White House ground rules, said they did not expect the United States to relax export controls as part of any understanding on rare earth minerals.
The officials said the two sides would discuss China maintaining an acceptable flow of rare earth minerals, which are used in a wide range of products, but there was unlikely to be a trade-off involving reduced US export controls. Artificial intelligence is also expected to be a major focus of the talks.
Separately, Treasury Secretary Bessent is scheduled to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York over the weekend to discuss economic issues, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The person said the agenda would include artificial intelligence and China's stockpiles of rare earth minerals, and that the talks could continue at the working level into Monday. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will join Bessent for Sunday's meeting, Greer's office said on Friday evening.
Trump visited China in May and had also travelled there during his first term for talks with Xi. Xi was last in the United States for a state visit in September 2015, during Barack Obama's presidency. The upcoming visit, with its mix of ceremony and strategic talks, is expected to focus on the broader US-China relationship and the key economic issues before both sides.
