Trump vs Xi: Who holds the cards ahead of high-stakes talks?

President Donald Trump personally welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington on Wednesday, meeting him and his wife Peng Liyuan at Joint Base Andrews alongside First Lady Melania Trump instead of waiting for a White House reception. Officials rolled out a 100-foot red carpet, staged a military honor guard, and flew two B-1 bombers overhead during the arrival. Trump said afterward that he thought the Chinese delegation was pleased with the welcome. Thursday's schedule calls for a second arrival ceremony, a military review, formal talks at the White House, and a state dinner, according to RT.

The warm reception followed news from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the US and China had agreed to push their trade truce out to January 10, continuing a period in which both countries have pulled back tariffs and avoided new restrictions. RT correspondent Konstantin Rozhkov noted that despite the ceremony, each side is walking into the summit with real bargaining chips.

For Washington, those include a law Trump signed last week allowing tariffs as steep as 100% on countries buying large amounts of Russian energy, and a stalled $14 billion arms package for Taiwan that Trump has treated as a bargaining chip. China's leverage rests heavily on its dominance of rare earth processing, output Washington needs to rebuild military supplies used during the Iran conflict. Trump has asked Xi to steer clear of deeper involvement in Iran. Bessent said the two sides had discussed setting up an AI dialogue and a system for flagging serious AI incidents.

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