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President Xi Jinping met US President Donald Trump at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews airbase, in the first face-to-face talks between the Chinese and American leaders since Trump visited Beijing in May.
On this first day of Xi’s three-day trip, he was met at the military airstrip by Trump himself, in an extraordinary break from protocol that Xi did not afford the American president on his trip to Beijing.
In a written statement published after his arrival, Xi said the two countries “should be partners rather than adversaries” and foster a “stable relationship defined by cooperation as the mainstay”.
And as he and first lady Peng Liyuan departed the base by motorcade for their Washington hotel, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that the US and China had agreed to extend their trade truce.
Nevertheless, the trip – and Trump’s warm welcome – come amid a fluctuating US-China relationship. Both Washington and Beijing are jockeying for position in arenas as diverse as trade, artificial intelligence (AI), resources and global influence.
Reporting by Teresa Frontado, Mark Magnier, Lucy Quaggin, Nayan Seth, Han Li, Khushboo Razdan, Vincent Chow, Holly Chik, Siqi Ji and Dewey Sim
All times given in blog entries are Eastern Time (UTC-5, HKT-13)