Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay state visit to US this week, Beijing confirms
Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United States from Wednesday to Friday, Beijing’s foreign ministry has confirmed.
In an official statement on Monday, the ministry said Xi would visit the US from September 23 to 25.
The trip – Xi’s first state visit since 2015 – will also mark his second face-to-face meeting this year with US President Donald Trump, as the world’s top two economies seek to stabilise a relationship tested by trade, technology and national security disputes.
According to Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Monday, Xi was visiting at the invitation of the US president.
Xi would “have an in-depth exchange of views with Trump on major issues concerning bilateral ties and world peace and developments”, Guo said at a regular press conference.
“The exchange of visits by the two presidents within the span of half a year will mark a milestone of historic significance,” Guo said, stressing the importance of head-of-state diplomacy in Sino-US relations.
Beijing pledged to enhance dialogue with Washington under a framework of “constructive strategic stability” to manage differences and bolster global peace and prosperity, the spokesman added.
Xi and Trump last met in Beijing in May, a summit that ended with a pledge to pursue a “constructive relationship of strategic stability”.
In the United States this week, the two leaders are expected to discuss trade, technology and other areas of friction, with artificial intelligence (AI) likely to be among the top issues on the agenda.
In a rare presidential gesture, Trump will personally greet Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday ahead of a two-day summit in Washington, the US has confirmed.
The state visit begins on Thursday with a State Floor arrival ceremony at the White House and a Rose Garden military review, followed by sit-down talks.
The East Room state dinner later will be attended by top US executives including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple chief Tim Cook and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Musk, Huang and Cook were among more than a dozen top American executives who accompanied Trump on his May 13-15 state visit to China.
On Friday, Trump will host Xi for a private White House tea followed by a tour of the National Archives before the Chinese leader departs.
The South China Morning Post reported earlier this month that Beijing was considering sending a group of top executives from the technology, electric vehicle and aerospace sectors to accompany Xi on his visit to Washington.
The selection was being modelled on the US business delegation that accompanied Trump to Beijing in May, sources told the SCMP.
One source familiar with the planning said both sides were treating every aspect of the visit as a matter of reciprocity – including the composition of the business delegation.
On Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng met in New York for a final round of discussions, agreeing to establish a dialogue on artificial intelligence and to put into operation a bilateral trade body.
Both sides agreed in May to launch an intergovernmental dialogue focused on AI safety and governance, though no formal talks on this track have been publicly confirmed.
Washington accuses Chinese companies of obtaining advanced AI capabilities through the unauthorised extraction of US models and has been closely watching how Chinese firms gain access to advanced chips.
Beijing has rejected the allegations as groundless, warning that any attempt to use such claims to curb China’s technological development or constrain its AI sector could trigger retaliation.
The AI friction comes as both sides try to preserve a fragile trade truce struck after Trump and Xi met in Busan, South Korea, last year.
A fresh wave of economic disputes is also testing relations.
In recent months, Washington has expanded its blacklist targeting alleged forced labour in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, banned Chinese robotics and power inverters, and sanctioned Chinese firms doing business with Iran – prompting swift retaliatory sanctions from Beijing.
Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Washington to help “remove interference and overcome obstacles” to high-level exchanges during a meeting with US ambassador David Perdue in Beijing.
And in a phone call with US counterpart Marco Rubio last week, Wang said that the two sides should “send a positive message that China and the United States are committed to advancing a constructive relationship of strategic stability and jointly promoting world peace and development” – echoing the core outcome of the May presidential summit.
Ahead of his meeting with Trump, Xi has sought to reinforce China’s diplomatic position through a series of international engagements, most recently at the Brics summit in New Delhi.
Addressing the summit on September 12, Xi called for deeper cooperation on AI and indirectly criticised US policies as he promoted China’s vision of a more inclusive approach to global governance.
Trump and Xi could meet in person two more times this year – at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in south China’s Shenzhen in November and the Group of 20 summit in Miami in December. (SCMP)
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