Summary: Trump and Xi’s remarks before bilateral talks
Here is brief recap of the remarks made by Donald Trump and Xi Jinping just now on the Chinese president’s landmark state visit to Washington.
Trump touted their “truly great friendship” and that they had made “tremendous strides on the issues facing our countries” as he welcomed Xi to the White House. He kept his remarks vague and focused on their personal relationship, of which he said he is “very proud”. Trump said the two leaders would focus on security, technology and artificial intelligence at their summit today, and are working towards “a more balanced trade relationship”.
Xi, meanwhile, struck a very different tone, acknowledging that he and Trump have built a “personal rapport” but concentrating his remarks on geopolitical concerns. Xi called for continued dialogue and the building of mutual trust, understanding and peaceful co-existence between the two countries and to avoid conflict. He stressed that Chinese and US interests are “deeply intertwined” and that they “stand to gain from co-operation and will both lose in conflict”. He also stated clearly his hope that Chinese companies would be “treated fairly” in the United States.
The Chinese leader also emphasised their joint, historic responsibility as leading nations in artificial intelligence. Both the US and China have the capability and responsibility to manage AI for good, he stressed, and must “ensure the development of AI is always under human control and serve the wellbeing of the people”.
The two men are meeting now in the Oval Office, where they will discuss the fragile trade-war truce, Taiwan, AI and China’s support for Iran and for Russia’s war in Ukraine. A breakthrough is unlikely today for the world’s two most powerful nations, but stick with us as we bring you all the latest out of the meeting.
Key events
The Chinese president is not staying at Blair House during his state visit, CNN is reporting citing a White House official.
The Financial Times (paywall) reports that he will stay at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, which was previously the Trump hotel, citing someone familiar with his plans.
On his last visit in 2015, Xi stayed at Blair House, the official US guest house across from the White House.
Xi lays out terms to avoid US-China military conflict
Robert Tait
in Washington
Xi Jingping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course.
At the start of his summit with Donald Trump at the White House, the Chinese president laid out terms for a mutual understanding that he said could avoid military conflict between the two competing superpowers.
“We should strengthen communication. China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialog, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust,” said Xi, with Trump looking on.
“We should coexist in peace,” he said. “China and the United States, as two major countries, stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation. Our two militaries should maintain regular dialogue and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention.”
With such conditions in place, Xi said, “the Thucydides trap can be overcome”, refering to the phenomenon, defined by the Greek historian, of tensions that arise when an emerging power challenges the dominance of an established power.
Xi invoked the phrase in his meeting with Trump in Beijing in May, asking the US president how he planned to avoid it.
His proposals for lessening tensions – which also included the invitation of 100,000 young Americans to visit China on student exchanges – come amid a period of intense competition between the two powers over artificial intelligence and trade, with each side imposing tariffs on the other.
Summary: Trump and Xi’s remarks before bilateral talks
Here is brief recap of the remarks made by Donald Trump and Xi Jinping just now on the Chinese president’s landmark state visit to Washington.
Trump touted their “truly great friendship” and that they had made “tremendous strides on the issues facing our countries” as he welcomed Xi to the White House. He kept his remarks vague and focused on their personal relationship, of which he said he is “very proud”. Trump said the two leaders would focus on security, technology and artificial intelligence at their summit today, and are working towards “a more balanced trade relationship”.
Xi, meanwhile, struck a very different tone, acknowledging that he and Trump have built a “personal rapport” but concentrating his remarks on geopolitical concerns. Xi called for continued dialogue and the building of mutual trust, understanding and peaceful co-existence between the two countries and to avoid conflict. He stressed that Chinese and US interests are “deeply intertwined” and that they “stand to gain from co-operation and will both lose in conflict”. He also stated clearly his hope that Chinese companies would be “treated fairly” in the United States.
The Chinese leader also emphasised their joint, historic responsibility as leading nations in artificial intelligence. Both the US and China have the capability and responsibility to manage AI for good, he stressed, and must “ensure the development of AI is always under human control and serve the wellbeing of the people”.
The two men are meeting now in the Oval Office, where they will discuss the fragile trade-war truce, Taiwan, AI and China’s support for Iran and for Russia’s war in Ukraine. A breakthrough is unlikely today for the world’s two most powerful nations, but stick with us as we bring you all the latest out of the meeting.
Trump and Xi are now both standing at the front of the Rose Garden (which Trump has turned into a patio) with their wives and flanked by members of Trump’s cabinet for the official military review and a military flyover.
Next, Trump and Xi observed a silent drill platoon from the Truman balcony. They will then go to the Rose Garden.
Xi then issues an invitation for 100,000 American students to visit China in the next five years for exchange and study.
He also announces that two pandas – Ping Ping and Fu Shuang – will settle into their new home at the Atlanta zoo in the coming days.
This reminds me of China’s gift of two giant pandas to the Smithsonian national zoo in 1972, following Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in the detente era of the Cold War.
The ceremony is now over.
US and China ‘will both lose in conflict’, says Xi
“Our two militaries should maintain regular dialogue,” Xi says, and the countries should aim to avoid conflict and confrontation.
He says the US and China must “hold the line of no conflict”, adding that the two countries “stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in conflict”.
“We should co-exist in peace,” Xi says, adding that competition between China and the US should be positive and kept within boundaries.
Xi says China and US must ensure AI ‘is always under human control’
With both China and the US being leading nations in artificial intelligence, Xi says they both have the capability and responsibility to manage AI for good, and “ensure the development of AI is always under human control and serve the wellbeing of the people”.
“China keeps its door wide open and welcomes American companies who want to do business and invest there,” Xi says, adding: “We hope Chinese companies are treated fairly here in the United States”.
“The interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined,” Xi says, adding that it would be hard to solve many of the world’s problems without the two countries co-operating with one another.
Xi says that China and the US “shoulder a historic responsibility to promote human progress” and says he is willing to work with Trump to “steer the ship of China-US ties”.
“We should strengthen communication,” he says, adding that “candid, in-depth, sustained dialogue can promote understanding and mutual trust.”
Of his personal relationship with Trump, Xi adds that the leaders have respect for each other and have built up “personal rapport”.
Taking to the podium, Xi says both China and the United States are “great countries” with “great peoples”.
He says he is here to “carry on our friendship, expand co-operation and promote the wellbeing of both our peoples”.
The two will also discuss “pressing issues” concerning security, technology and artificial intelligence, Trump says (though he’s still trying to make “super intelligence” happen).
He adds:
The decisions we make in these areas today can promote promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come.
Trump says he’s “very proud” of the US-China relationship, and says the two countries are working towards a “more balanced trade relationship” including “new market access for American farmers and ranchers”.
He touts new trade progress between the US and China, and says that he and Xi “have made tremendous strides on the issues facing our two countries”.
