Trump says US-China ties have never been better during Xi White House visit

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States and China had "never gotten along better" as he reviewed ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a White House meeting. Trump said the two countries could continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations.

Xi said China-US relations had reached another "historical juncture" and that his talks with Trump were "sincere and in-depth". He said the discussions had led to common understanding on many issues and added fresh direction to what he described as a constructive relationship of strategic stability.

Trump gave Xi a ceremonial welcome at the White House, with military honours and a flypast by fighter jets, before the two leaders held talks in the Oval Office for more than two hours. Later, at a state dinner in the East Room, the two leaders raised a toast to bilateral ties.

In his remarks, Trump said, "Americans and Chinese have always exchanged goods, knowledge, customs, and ideas. This has been the foundation of commerce and mutual respect between our countries, and together we can continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations." Xi said, "Today, President Trump and I had sincere and in-depth exchanges, and reached common understanding on many issues. This has added new substance to the constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability and provided new strategic guidance for China-US relations."

Both leaders referred to earlier links between the two countries. Trump recalled the visit of the first Chinese diplomats to Boston 158 years ago. Xi mentioned George Washington's collection of Chinese porcelain and cooperation between the two countries during the Second World War. He also referred to former Chinese president Mao Zedong and former US president Richard Nixon in the context of normalising Sino-US relations. "Today, Sino-US relations are at a new historical starting point," Xi said, while referring to Trump's pledge to make America great again and China's commitment to national rejuvenation.

The three-course White House dinner drew on American ingredients with Chinese influence. Trump presented Xi with a statue of a bald eagle, the national emblem of the US, as 134 guests, including senior officials, ministers and technology industry leaders, applauded. Trump said, "The bald eagle is a national symbol of the United States and an embodiment of the free and soaring spirit of America. We hope it will find a nice place, a wonderful place in Beijing." The guest list included Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google's Sundar Pichai, Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk, Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Apple's Tim Cook and Dell's Michael Dell. Trump also invited guests to look at the ballroom that is under construction.

Earlier, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Xi and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan at the North Portico of the White House. Near the White House, a large group of protesters raised slogans including "Free Tibet", "Xi Jinping, you are not welcome", "free Hong Kong" and "free East Turkestan".

During the Oval Office talks, Xi called for the new vision of a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability to be put into action and for both sides to find the right way for the two major countries to get along. He also drew a red line on Taiwan and urged the US to handle the issue with prudence. On artificial intelligence, Xi said the two countries should make use of their strengths rather than guard against each other. He said they could continue dialogue on AI, exchange views on its risks and benefits, work together to prevent misuse and abuse, maintain human control over AI technologies, uphold a people-centred approach and ensure AI serves human progress.

Xi arrived in Washington on Wednesday on a three-day visit. Trump and Xi are also scheduled to visit the National Archives after tea at the White House, rounding off a day in which both sides highlighted improving ties while discussing the broader direction of the relationship.