At Trump meeting, Xi Jinping lays out terms to avoid US-China military conflict

Xi Jinping used a White House summit with Donald Trump to lay out conditions he said could keep the two countries from sliding toward military conflict amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence, trade and Taiwan. Xi urged sustained dialogue and crisis-communication channels between the two militaries, arguing that cooperation benefits both nations while confrontation carries mutual costs. He said such cooperation could help the two nations avoid the "Thucydides trap," a term describing conflict between a rising and an established power, a concept he had also raised with Trump in May. Xi also proposed that China host 100,000 young Americans for student exchange programs, according to The Guardian.

Peng Liyuan accompanied her husband to the White House, where Trump noted this was only the second time a Chinese leader had made a state visit, the first coming under Barack Obama in 2015. He called their bond a "truly great friendship" and cited wider access for American farmers and ranchers to Chinese markets, while previewing talks on security and what he termed "super intelligence." Xi praised their personal rapport and referenced commitments from Trump's earlier China visit toward a stable relationship. Trump had also broken protocol by traveling to Andrews Air Force Base the previous evening to greet the couple.

The visit closed with a White House state dinner attended by technology leaders including Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI's Sam Altman, though analysts doubted the goodwill would yield lasting agreements amid ongoing U.S. export controls on chips.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →