Donald Trump and Xi Jinping strike warm tone at White House as US-China tensions remain

Donald Trump laid on a lavish state banquet for Xi Jinping at the end of a day filled with pomp and pageantry at the White House during which the two leaders cast their relationship as one of friends rather than competitors. Any announcement of new deals on trade, tariffs or AI will come later but all the signs point to Xi’s state visit to Washington being more about symbolism than substance.The tone was set before the Chinese leader landed at Andrews Air Force Base on Wednesday evening when US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said China and the US had agreed to extend their trade war truce by just two months. The truce, which was agreed by Trump and Xi in the South Korean city of Busan last October and saw a reduction of tariffs and the lifting of export controls on China’s rare earth minerals and permanent magnets, was due to expire on November 10.Trump and Xi are expected to meet in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in November at an Asian-Pacific leaders’ summit and at the G20 in Miami the following month. The short extension suggests the two sides hope to use those two deadlines to make progress on their trade relationship.Guests at the state banquet included almost all of America’s tech titans, including Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, along with leading figures from banking like JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon. But no Chinese business leaders were there, partly because of the chaotic protocol arrangements at the White House but also perhaps because they had no new deals to announce.READ MOREWashington and Beijing have agreed to establish a hotline to deal with risks or emergencies from AI but the two leaders struck sharply different tones on the issue of AI regulation on Thursday. Trump posted on social media that they both wanted to leave things as they were but Xi suggested that China and the US should work together on building guardrails for the technology.[ China’s Xi tells Trump: ‘Let’s not wrestle’ during White House summitOpens in new window ]China’s first lady Peng Liyuan, China’s president Xi Jinping, US president Donald Trump and US first lady Melania Trump at the White House in Washington on September 24, 2026. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images “The two sides can continue their dialogue on artificial intelligence, exchange views on its risks and benefits, and work together to prevent its misuse and malicious use. Human control over AI technology must be maintained. The two sides should uphold a people-centred approach and the principle of developing AI for good, so that artificial intelligence serves human progress,” Xi said, according to a Chinese readout of his bilateral meeting with Trump.That readout also suggested that Xi pressed Trump to shift Washington’s position on Taiwan from its current stance of not supporting independence for the self-governing island to opposing it.Elon Musk seated next to US first lady Melania Trump during a state dinner at the White House on Thursday, September 24, 2026, hosted by US president Donald Trump for Chinese president Xi Jinping. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York Times “Xi Jinping emphasised that China’s position on safeguarding national unity and territorial integrity is very clear. He expressed the hope that the US side would uphold the correct position of opposing “Taiwan independence” and handle the Taiwan question prudently, laying a solid foundation for China-US strategic co-operation and the development of bilateral relations,” the readout said.There is no sign that Trump is ready to make that change but Beijing will be content if he continues to delay a $14 billion package of weapons approved by Congress for sale to Taiwan. Trump said after his visit to Beijing last May that he saw the arms sale as a useful bargaining chip in his negotiations with Xi.From a Chinese perspective, Xi’s visit to Washington could scarcely have gone better and all of the symbolism at the White House reinforced the message that the US now views China as something approaching an equal. The images will play well with the Chinese public and Beijing can feel confident that when they meet again in Shenzhen after the US midterm elections, Trump is likely to be in a weaker negotiating position whereas Xi’s will be just the same.[ Trump’s red carpet welcome for Xi shows how much the world has changedOpens in new window ]