Xi says China-US relationship key to global stability as summit talks begin
Amy Hawkins
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have started their bilateral talks inside the Great Hall of the People, China’s grand national legislature.
In opening remarks, Xi noted that 2026 marks 250 years of US independence and said that stability in the US-China relationship was necessary for global stability.
Trump said that he and Xi have “known each other for a long time” and that Xi was a “great leader”.
“I say to everybody you’re a great leader,” Trump told Xi. “Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”
Key events
As the high-stakes US-China summit continues, negotiations on the conflict in the Middle East, the US-China trade war, disagreements over Taiwan and global AI competition will be packed into just over 24 hours.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said as the Trump team travelled to Beijing that Washington would be pushing Beijing for help on the Iran crisis.
Beijing, meanwhile, hopes to use the meeting to recalibrate US-China ties and set a foundation for a stable and, optimistically, predictable trade relationship going forwards.
Amy Hawkins also reports that Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US, said in the Chinese Communist party’s official newspaper on Thursday:
Against the backdrop of escalating international instability, the strategic significance of Sino-US relations is even more prominent.
It is not clear what concrete outcomes will be achieved at this week’s talks. The Trump administration has talked of establishing a Board of Trade with China to address commercial differences between the countries. Beijing wants to push Trump to soften US support for Taiwan, although many in Beijing concede this is unlikely.
Despite the trip lasting barely two days, Xi and Trump will have plenty of time for interaction on this visit – the first of up to four presidential meetings expected this year.
See the full report here:
David Smith
Donald Trump was evidently pleased with his welcome in Beijing. US domestic critics will say that it flattered his authoritarian ego perfectly.
In October 2024 Trump said of Xi Jinping:
He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he’s a brilliant guy, whether you like it or not.
The US president will have loved the cool, clinical pageantry that greeted him at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing: red carpet, cannon fire, martial music and troops in ceremonial uniforms with bayoneted rifles marching in lockstep.
Trump stopped to applaud children who energetically waved flags and flowers with theatrical adulation. He watched as Xi warmly shook hands with his son, Eric, and his favourite rightwing ideologue, Stephen Miller.
“That was an honour like few have ever seen before,” Trump said when they sat down in a grand boardroom.
He told Xi:
You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true. I only say the truth.
Once, such China-US meetings were palpably between autocrat and democrat. Now they appear like two birds of a feather.
More from the two leaders’ opening remarks now.
Trump told Xi in the meeting room that their two countries were “going to have a fantastic future together”.
“It’s an honour to be with you,” Trump said.
It’s an honour to be your friend, and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before.”
The Chinese leader was quoting as telling Trump at the table with their delegations in the Great Hall of the People that he was “happy” for the US president’s visit while the world was “at a new crossroads” and that he looked forward to exchanging views with him on major issues.
Xi said:
A stable China-US relationship is a boon for the world. Cooperation benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both. We should be partners and not rivals.”
Xi says China-US relationship key to global stability as summit talks begin
Amy Hawkins
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have started their bilateral talks inside the Great Hall of the People, China’s grand national legislature.
In opening remarks, Xi noted that 2026 marks 250 years of US independence and said that stability in the US-China relationship was necessary for global stability.
Trump said that he and Xi have “known each other for a long time” and that Xi was a “great leader”.
“I say to everybody you’re a great leader,” Trump told Xi. “Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”
Trump tells Xi their relationship will be ‘better than ever’
The US-China summit is now under way.
Xi said in opening remarks that he always believed that the common interests between China and the US outweighed the differences.
He also said the success of China and the US was an opportunity for each other.
Trump told him in reply that the relationship was “going to be better than ever”.
Trump’s motorcade arrived at the Great Hall at 10.01am, almost exactly on schedule.
It slowly drew to a halt and Trump emerged at 10.03, wearing a suit and red tie. A band played a fanfare.
He walked over to Xi who was standing by the steps and they shook hands for a couple of seconds, with Trump briefly patting Xi’s hand, AFP reports.
Xi, accompanied by Trump, then shook hands with the US delegation front row.
Trump and Xi moved to the raised red-and-gold dais as the Chinese military band played the Star Spangled Banner. Trump saluted as cannon fire rang out across Tianenmen Square. Both leaders then stood to attention for the Chinese national anthem.
Trump and Xi inspected an honour guard of several lines of Chinese troops in various ceremonial uniforms in blue and white with bayoneted rifles. Nearest the press poll was a group of rifle-clutching female troops.
Schoolchildren then energetically did their routine and Trump smiled broadly and applauded them as Xi and he moved along in front of them, later heading towards the Great Hall.
Trump and Xi have entered the Great Hall of the People, along with their entourages, and the welcome ceremony has ended.
Bilateral talks between the two countries are now to follow, and we’re seeing live images of the two delegations seated on a long table with Chinese and US flags at the end.
Xi is delivering opening remarks as Trump listens, sometimes nodding, and now is addressing Xi.
The day is to later include a visit to the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping take part in welcome ceremony in Beijing
Donald Trump has met Xi Jinping in Beijing and a welcome ceremony is under way outside the Great Hall of the People.
The leaders shook hands and walked together on a red carpet after Trump arrived in a motorcade to the steps outside, where a US delegation including Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and business chiefs including Elon Musk awaited him.
The ceremony is continuing now, with marching soldiers and music, as Xi and Trump stand side by side under a gazebo and watch.
Trump and Xi are walking together on a red carpet, drum rolls and trumpets are sounding.
Trump salutes as a band is playing the US national anthem.
Xi is now shaking hands with US officials.
The two men have walked together to a group of people and Trump is shaking hands.
Donald Trump has gotten out of a car and shaken hands with Xi Jinping.
Xi Jinping has walked down stairs in Tinanman Square as a US motorcade drives towards the area.
US officials including secretary of state Marco Rubio and defence secretary Pete Hegseth are also gathering.
From Beijing we’re seeing live images of an honour guard marching into position before a welcome ceremony for Donald Trump at the Great Hall of the People – due to start in minutes.
During the summit, Donald Trump also intends to raise the idea of the US, China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal, according to a senior Trump administration official who spoke anonymously in briefing reporters ahead of the trip.
China has previously been cool to entering such a pact. Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and is far from parity with the US and Russia, which each are estimated to have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads.
The last nuclear arms pact between Russia and the US – known as the New Start treaty – expired in February. As it was set to expire, Trump rejected a call by Russia to extend the two-country deal for another year and called for “a new, improved and modernised” deal that includes China.
Rubio says US will urge Beijing to be more ‘active’ in resolving Iran war – report
Marco Rubio says American officials will try to persuade China to take a more “active role” in resolving the conflict in Iran, Fox News is reporting.
The US secretary of state told the network from aboard Air Force One while en route to China that the US had made its case to Beijing on why it should engage in efforts to settle simmering tensions with Iran.
“It’s in their interest to resolve this,” Rubio said.
We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they’re doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf.”
Among the big tech leaders who (eventually) flew to China with Trump on Air Force One is Jensen Huang, the president and CEO of Nvidia.
Trump was reportedly picked up Huang in Alaska en route to the Beijing summit, while the presidential plane was refuelling. Trump asked Huang at the last minute to join the trip, Reuters quoted a source as saying. Huang had not figured on an initial list of travelling executives provided by the White House.
Various media outlets had reported on Huang’s apparent omission after the plane had departed for Alaska and Beijing. Trump later posted from Air Force One saying Huang was onboard and he denied the CEO had not been invited.
The Nvidia boss is close to Trump, but in April Huang criticised the US’s limitations on chip sales to China, saying he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI. The sale of US semiconductors to China is believed to be a key agenda item for the summit.
Here are some photos of US snipers and other security forces watching over Air Force One while it refuelled on Tuesday at Joint Base Elmendorf in Anchorage, Alaska.