Washington, Sep 24 (AP) President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the “truly great friendship” he has forged with Xi Jinping as the Chinese leader began his highly anticipated state visit.
While Trump has many thorny issues to discuss with the president of America’s biggest economic rival, he focused on his long relationship with Xi as the two gathered with aides for opening remarks before formal talks.
“From the time of my first election in 2016, President Xi and I have forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually, built on mutual respect and the vital interests of our people,” Trump said.
Trump and Xi have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for private talks.
China has resisted the Trump administration’s urgings — and economic threats — to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to US terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips. The two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend by two months a one-year trade truce that was set to expire Nov. 10 as they work to find a more durable agreement.
Xi said in his remarks upon arriving that the “competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds.
“It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” Xi added.
All the while, both leaders seem to believe that time is on their side as they look to outmaneuver the other in what is expected to be the world’s most significant economic and national security competition for years to come.
Trump said Thursday in a social media post that artificial intelligence — “superintelligence” as he is trying to rebrand it — will be high on the agenda amid growing global anxiety that the technology will kill jobs or potentially even wipe out humanity.
“I want to leave it exactly where it is,” Trump wrote. “That is China’s position also.”
Xi also touched on artificial intelligence in his opening comments, saying that the two countries had a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.
“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.
The two countries’ finance ministers met earlier this week, with the US proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations.
Trump has made clear he wants to impress Xi with the visit. The Republican president made sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House’s South Lawn was completed before the visit and he met Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Wednesday evening when they flew into Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
Trump has lamented about his planned White House ballroom not being ready for the state dinner in Xi’s honor on Thursday evening.
That black-tie event will be held in the White House East Room, featuring a décor that “draws on the color red’s longstanding cultural significance throughout Chinese history,” according to first lady Melania Trump.
Dinner will begin with a toast honoring the historic “Toast to Peace” between President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in 1972.
The guest list includes Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, among other tech titans staking out positions on whether more safeguards are needed in the race to develop artificial intelligence.
But Trump’s decision to roll out the red carpet for Xi has spurred criticism from lawmakers in both parties and some White House allies.
“Quite frankly, had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States of America based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
US and China still have work to do on trade truce
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two leaders may be open to a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents that could affect national security. But on AI and a host of other thorny issues, it remains unclear whether the leaders can make progress.
Shortly after Xi’s arrival in Washington, Bessent announced on Fox News that the two sides had come to terms on extending the trade truce, forged last year in South Korea. He said it is possible that Trump and Xi could come to a larger agreement by January or just decide to once again extend it further.
Trump and Xi certainly have incentive to keep the truce alive.
Trump’s Republican Party is facing headwinds as they try to maintain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections and can hardly afford further economic disruption. Meanwhile, Xi is navigating an uneven Chinese economy — one in which its domestic economy is struggling while its high tech exports remain strong.
Peak baseline US tariffs reached 145 per cent during last year’s trade battle — matched by China’s reciprocal levies of 125 per cent. After Trump and Xi met in South Korea last year, the average US tariff rate fell to roughly 47 per cent, while China charged an average in the mid-30s. But in February, the US Supreme Court overturned many of Trump’s tariffs, causing the taxes on Chinese goods to have more variation.
The stopgap announced by Bessent was shorter than what both sides had suggested in recent weeks.
The Chinese side had indicated that they wanted to see the trade truce extended until the end of Trump’s term in January 2029.
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials had suggested a three- to six-month extension as a more appropriate time frame because China has been slow to fulfill past commitments on rare earth exports as well as imports of US soybeans and aircraft.
(PTI News)
