Chinese and American negotiators are set to spend the entire weekend hashing out possible agreements ahead of Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington, arriving on the 23rd. This is Xi’s first trip to the United States since 2023, when he met with former President Joe Biden during a visit that included participation in the APEC summit in San Francisco.
The gathering will be defined by trade talks between the two largest economies in the world and by the contest over artificial intelligence and other strategic technologies.
According to the itinerary released by the White House, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan will arrive at Joint Base Andrews, on the outskirts of Washington, where they will be welcomed by Donald Trump and Melania. The couples will take part in a welcome ceremony, something rare to occur on a military base.
On the 24th, both will meet at the White House. The schedule calls for an arrival ceremony, a military ceremony in the Rose Garden, and a bilateral meeting. In the evening, the presidential couple will host a state dinner in the East Room, during which Trump and Xi are expected to address the gathering.
Before the bilateral talks, the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, will meet with Chinese officials in New York on Sunday, according to a statement released by his office. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will lay the groundwork for the high-level talks between Trump and Xi Jinping on the 24th.
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Bessent and He Lifeng last met in person near Seoul about four months ago, a few days before Trump’s visit to Beijing in May.
The United States and China have been working to reduce tariffs on American energy and agricultural products, as previously reported by Bloomberg, as part of a broader initiative to lower barriers on US$30 billion in less-sensitive products on each side, under a comprehensive agreement reached during the latest summit between US and Chinese leaders.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to be a prominent topic in the talks between Trump and Xi, as the United States and China are the two dominant powers in the race to control this technology.
Despite rising calls to slow the pace of AI development amid concerns about loss of control, the American government contends that leading players in the sector, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta, cannot afford to hit the brakes for fear that China will take the lead.
For a long time considered lagging in the field of advanced AI, Beijing has been rapidly closing the gap with the United States. Washington is trying to curb these advances by limiting exports to China of advanced chips, particularly Nvidia semiconductors.
Despite this rivalry, there remains hope that the two superpowers can reach an agreement during the meeting. However, an agreement to slow AI development or implement safeguards on a global scale does not seem likely.
In a sign of the central role that agriculture is likely to play in the discussions, representatives from Cofco, the state-owned food trading company, may accompany Xi on the trip to the United States, according to two people familiar with the matter.
More than a dozen companies are also being considered to join a CEO delegation, though no final decision has yet been made, said the people. So far, this is one of the most intriguing uncertainties of the week, with BYD’s leadership among the leading names. Whether these executives will have any prominence is one of the few truly uncertain aspects of the visit.
During a state visit in May, Trump took more than a dozen CEOs to China, including Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Elon Musk of Tesla. The executives met with Premier Li Qiang, and Xi told them that US companies “are deeply involved in China’s reform and opening up, a process from which both sides benefited.”
The State Banquet to be offered to the Chinese delegation will be held in the East Room of the White House. Both Trump and Xi will give speeches at the start of the dinner, which will include the attendance of several guests, including executives from the technology and finance sectors, a list that is somewhat unusual.
“It will be a highly coveted event, with seats hotly contested,” a source familiar with the event organization told reporters in a briefing.
According to her, the CEOs Sam Altman, of OpenAI, Jensen Huang, of Nvidia, Cristiano Amon, of Qualcomm, and Apple’s president Tim Cook are expected. Also anticipated are the appearances of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk; and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
The Anthropic declined to say whether it was invited. Altman, for his part, suggested that Trump and Xi could win the Nobel Peace Prize if they reach an agreement on artificial intelligence, which provides a sense of what the industry expects from this meeting.
On Friday (the 25th), the two couples are expected to participate in a private tea at the White House and visit the National Archives, where they will see some of the United States’ most important historical documents in the year the country celebrates its 250th anniversary. After that, Xi will proceed to the Andrews Base to depart Washington.
