Washington: US President Donald Trump is hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday, September 24, for a state visit, the first by a Chinese leader in more than a decade. The visit follows Trump's personal welcome of Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, a gesture Trump rarely extends to foreign leaders.
What's Happening
Thursday's programme includes an arrival ceremony, a troop review in the Rose Garden, and private bilateral talks between the two leaders. In the evening, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will host Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at a state dinner in the East Room, where both leaders are expected to speak. Trump has previously welcomed only one other leader planeside in this way: Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Alaska in August 2025.
What's on the Table
The two leaders face a long list of difficult issues, including trade, Taiwan, artificial intelligence safety, critical minerals and the war in Iran. Ahead of Xi's arrival, top officials from both sides agreed to extend their trade truce until January.
Trump struck an upbeat tone ahead of the summit, telling reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that the two leaders have a very good relationship. However, analysts and news reports expect the visit to focus more on ceremony and signalling stability than on major policy breakthroughs.
A Busy Year of Summitry
This is the third in-person meeting between Trump and Xi in eleven months. In October 2025, they met in Busan, South Korea, on the sidelines of the APEC summit and agreed to de-escalate their trade war. In May 2026, Trump made a state visit to Beijing, where the two sides agreed to begin talks on guardrails for AI development. Those talks began only this week.
The two leaders are scheduled to meet twice more this year: at the APEC leaders' meeting in Shenzhen on November 18–19, and at the G20 summit in Miami on December 14–15.
Sources
The White House; Associated Press via PBS NewsHour; ABC News; Council on Foreign Relations; AAP.
Latest Development
As of Thursday, September 24, the bilateral talks and state dinner are under way or scheduled for later in the day. No outcomes from the talks have been announced yet. This story will be updated as details emerge.