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.

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.

“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”.

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”.

Donald Trump is speaking now. He notes that Xi is the first Chinese leader to make a second formal visit to the White House, and says the two have “forged a truly great friendship” since Trump was first elected in 2016.

Trump points out that this is the first time he and Xi are meeting at the White House. “A lot has changed since he was last here,” he says.

Donald and Melania Trump have just welcomed Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan with a military band and the flags of both countries to the White House.

by Amy Hawkins and David Smith

The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a “strategic stability” between the two powers. But there was little by way of concrete outcomes: the countries remain at loggerheads over trade, export controls and geopolitics.

Despite the goodwill built in May, few anticipate any major breakthroughs this week when Xi makes his first state visit to the US since 2015. “Expectations are very low,” said Bonnie Glaser, a managing director at the US thinkthank the German Marshall Fund. “Nobody is using the term ‘deliverables’.”

One area in which Trump and Xi may reach some consensus is on artificial intelligence safety. Tech executives including Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Sam Altman of ⁠OpenAI, Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk ​of ​Tesla, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jensen Huang ​of Nvidia will reportedly ​attend a ⁠state dinner at the White House on Thursday evening.

President Trump teased in a social media post this morning that artificial intelligence would be a major part of his talks today with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his state visit to Washington.

He also suggested that he would avoid entertaining any kind of agreement between the two nations limiting AI development.

“A big day with President Xi of China,” Trump wrote in the post to his personal social media platform. “Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China’s position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ! President DJT.”

(Super intelligence is the term Trump has been pushing to refer to artificial intelligence. He pitched the language earlier this week in a tangent during his speech to the world leaders at the United Nations. It’s unclear at this point if anybody is going to take him up on it.)

After an unusually warm red carpet welcome ceremony on the tarmac yesterday, Trump is scheduled to receive Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House South Portico. The pair will deliver remarks, exchange gifts, and watch a military review before a busy day of talks and diplomatic pageantry.

The leaders of the world’s two superpowers are meeting in the US on Thursday for Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. The last time the Chinese president was hosted in Washington (by Barack Obama in 2015), the issues on the agenda included cybercrime, technology, the climate crisis and human rights. The star of the day was Ne-Yo, who serenaded Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with Peng reportedly singing along at the state dinner.

This time, Xi is meeting Donald Trump, who has overhauled the world order and recalibrated the US-China relationship. Trump is contending with a China that is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago. Click the link below for five things to look out for at the US-China summit.

Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have plenty to cover when they sit down for talks Thursday at the White House.

The US and Chinese leaders are tackling issues like trade irritants, artificial intelligence safeguards and the war in Iran. Trump wants China to use its influence with Iran, while Xi seeks a halt to US arms sales to Taiwan.

A fragile trade truce had been set to expire in November, but the two countries agreed Wednesday to extend it for two months.

This is Xi’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. Stick with us as we bring you the latest lines.