China’s President Xi arrives in Washington, kicking off his state visit with rare planeside welcome from Trump
WASHINGTON: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on Wednesday, where he was met with a rare planeside greeting from President Donald Trump after their top officials agreed to extend a trade truce until January.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the extension of the truce — under which the countries agreed to scale back tariffs and refrain from imposing new trade restrictions — during a Fox News Channel interview as Trump welcomed Xi at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington.
“I don’t know whether a bigger deal can be done. I don’t know whether we will just roll the current deal,” Bessent said in the interview, noting the extension would give the leaders more time to talk about the issues at upcoming meetings in China in November and Florida in December.
Trump’s decision to greet Xi as he landed, rather than waiting for him to drive up to the White House, shows how far the US president is willing to go to honor China’s leader as he made his first state visit to the US capital in more than a decade.
A 100-foot (30 meter) long red carpet was unfurled at the bottom of the staircase placed at the door of Xi’s plane. A 21-person honor guard was arrayed on the sides of the carpet and Trump and first lady Melania Trump stood near a staircase on the side of the plane, where they greeted Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with handshakes.
The welcome ceremony also included a flyover by two B-1 bombers, platoons from each military service, and a presentation of the flags and anthems of both countries. Trump and his wife spoke to their counterparts, but their words could not be heard. Trump, who wore gloves and an overcoat though it was a relatively warm 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) outside, removed one of his gloves to shake hands with Xi. At one point, he slapped Xi on the back and said something to him that was inaudible.
“I think they appreciate it, tremendous people,” Trump said to reporters after he returned to the White House Wednesday evening.
In a statement marking his arrival in the US, China’s leader wrote that his country and the US “should be partners, not rivals. Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand and the two countries can contribute to each other’s success, thereby benefiting the wider world.”
The salutation kicks off a three-day visit that’s expected to be saturated with pomp, even by White House standards. The state visit, complete with a formal state dinner at the White House on Thursday, is supposed to reciprocate the ceremonial grandeur that marked Trump’s May visit to China.
But it also is a showy patina at a time when tensions between the two geopolitical rivals are high over trade, artificial intelligence, Trump’s war with Iran and China’s designs on Taiwan.
