Xi Arrives in Washington as US, China Extend Trade Truce

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., on the afternoon of September 23, 2026, for a three-day state visit to the United States, where President Donald Trump personally greeted him at the airport — a rare gesture marking the first time in 11 years a U.S. president has received a foreign leader at the base. The visit, running through Friday, is expected to cover trade, technology and regional security, and it opened with a concrete deliverable: the two countries agreed to extend their fragile trade truce by two months, to January 10, 2027, according to Al Jazeera.

A Rare Welcome

Xi’s plane landed Wednesday afternoon, local time. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the foot of the jet, as footage streamed by China’s state broadcaster showed. The arrival ceremony featured an honor guard on a red carpet, a military band playing both national anthems, a 21-gun salute, and a B-1 bomber flying overhead, Al Jazeera reported. Trump described the occasion as one that had “attracted worldwide attention,” calling Xi “a great leader” and saying he looked forward to “an in-depth exchange of views” to advance bilateral relations.

Writing later that day, Xi struck a conciliatory tone, framing the relationship around partnership rather than rivalry. According to Xinhua News, the Chinese president said “China and the United States are both great nations, and the Chinese and American peoples are both great peoples,” adding that “the two countries should be partners rather than rivals” and that “realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can fully go hand in hand.” He called for a relationship that is “cooperation-led, with moderate competition, controllable differences, and a promising peace.”

Xi was accompanied by Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Vice Premier He Lifeng and Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng greeted him at the airport, having arrived earlier.

Trade Truce Extended

Speaking on Fox News as Xi landed, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the two sides would extend what he called the “Busan Agreement” — the one-year trade truce first agreed by Trump and Xi in South Korea in October 2025 that kept tariffs lower and rare earths flowing. The deal, originally set to expire November 10, 2026, now runs to January 10, 2027.

Bessent said the goal of his meeting with He Lifeng ahead of Xi’s arrival was to “see if we could do a bigger deal as opposed to just a series of smaller things,” but he added that Beijing needs to fulfill more deliverables. According to CNBC, the two-month extension was shorter than the six months or longer many had expected, and Chinese state media did not immediately report Bessent’s comments.

The short extension drew scrutiny from analysts. Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told CNBC the move “suggests to me the U.S. is unsatisfied with China’s offers and wants to keep the heat on, with a bonus being it is more likely that Xi goes to the G20 in Miami.” Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, cautioned that simply extending the truce does not resolve the practical problems companies face — including the lack of a standardized approach to applying for rare earth export licenses.

An ‘Unprecedented’ Diplomatic Rhythm

Xi’s visit follows Trump’s trip to Beijing in May 2026, when the two leaders agreed to build what they called a “constructive strategic stability relationship.” Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, described the reciprocal visits as without parallel in the history of U.S.-China relations.

“There has never been any precedent in the history of US-China relations for the top two leaders of the two countries to visit each other within a single year,” Sun told Al Jazeera, describing the stabilisation of ties as “quite prominent and very impressive” given that only 12 months earlier the two countries were escalating tariffs and export controls against each other.

Yet the warmth on display masks unresolved disputes. As RFI reported, analysts expect no breakthroughs on artificial intelligence, Chinese rare earth supply, U.S. military support for Taiwan, or Beijing’s ties to Iran. On Taiwan, Sun said Beijing’s main goal would be to prevent or stall a US$14 billion arms package that Congress approved earlier this year and that the Trump administration has been unwilling to advance.

The visit’s pageantry also drew domestic criticism. Republican Senator Roger Wicker said the president should remember that his guest is a “cruel dictator” whose large military is “directly aimed at the United States.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers rejected the criticism, telling Spectrum News that Wicker was “wrong” and that Trump had done “what is most in the interests of the United States.”

What’s Next

Xi’s schedule includes a military ceremony at the White House, a state dinner on Thursday attended by U.S. technology leaders including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Elon Musk, and a visit to the National Archives on Friday. No Chinese tech executives are expected to attend the dinner, and no joint press conference is scheduled. The two leaders could meet again at an APEC meeting in Shenzhen in November and at the G20 summit in Miami in December.

Ahead of the visit, Bessent and He Lifeng discussed setting up an alert or hotline system for AI-related incidents — an area Sun identified as the most likely source of tangible progress. Whether that mechanism materialises, and whether the two-month truce extension gives way to a broader agreement before January 10, will be the clearest tests of whether this carefully choreographed courtship produces results beyond ceremony.