White House rolling out red carpet for historic Xi Jinping visit

President Donald Trump is set to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week for a three-day state visit, Xi's first to the United States since 2015, and the pair's third meeting in the past year. Trump plans to greet Xi at Andrews Air Force Base ahead of a White House state dinner and a military flyover, pageantry that Council on Foreign Relations fellow David Sacks called "really unprecedented." Trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan are expected to top the agenda, alongside a trade truce reached in South Korea last October and expiring in November, according to BBC.

Trump has long criticized the US trade deficit with China, over $91 billion according to the Census Bureau, and rare earth exports from China have declined despite last year's deal. Talks between US and Chinese officials at the UN this week made no progress, the BBC reported. David Firestein of the Bush China Foundation said AI has climbed toward the top of the agenda, Senator Bernie Sanders called for a treaty to pause AI development, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called recent talks with counterpart He Lifeng "very successful."

On Taiwan, Trump is holding off signing a congressionally approved arms sale, using it as leverage with Beijing, which has vowed to "reunify" with the self-governing island. Xi is bringing his wife, Peng Liyuan, who along with Melania Trump plans a Thursday visit to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. Experts told the BBC they do not expect major breakthroughs this week.

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