Trump, Xi head into Washington summit with both leaders thinking time is on their side

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are meeting at the White House on Thursday amid disputes over trade, Taiwan, Iran, and AI safeguards. The two sides agreed Wednesday to extend their trade truce by two months, delaying a November 10 deadline. Trump is also hosting Xi with state-visit pomp, while both leaders appear to believe time favors their side.

The trade truce was extended by two months after the sides had agreed on Wednesday to avoid an immediate lapse on November 10.

Trump and Xi are expected to discuss China’s calls for an end to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and a loosening of export restrictions on advanced chips.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two leaders may be open to a new notification mechanism for AI incidents that could affect national security.

Trump’s Republican Party is facing pressure ahead of November’s midterm elections, while Xi is dealing with an uneven Chinese economy.

The guest list for Thursday evening’s state dinner includes Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Published Sep 24, 2026 1:26 pm KST

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, walks on a red carpet after greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping during an arrival ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Sept. 23, in this Getty Images photo. AFP-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for talks on Thursday at the White House.

China has resisted the Trump administration's urgings — and economic threats — to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. 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. And the two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend a one-year trade truce set to expire Nov. 10 for two months, kicking the can on finding a more durable agreement.

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.

“The president very much believes that over time the U.S. economy is going to grow, the U.S. will get stronger, the U.S. will keep making advances in AI and on technology, and that ... the U.S. will develop alternative sources of critical minerals and rare earths,” said Edgard Kagan, a former senior State Department official handling East Asia policy issues under Trump and President Joe Biden. “I think when Xi Jinping sits down with Donald Trump, he very much believes the U.S. is in hurtling decline and that time is on China’s side.”

Trump, for his part, is going all in on the pomp for the state visit for Xi.

In a grand gesture, the Republican leader kicked off the visit by showing up to greet Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, upon their arrival on Wednesday evening just outside Washington.

Trump has made clear he wants to impress Xi with the visit, making sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House's South Lawn was completed ahead of the visit. He's also openly lamented that his planned White House ballroom isn't ready for a fancy state dinner in Xi's honor on Thursday evening.

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 — an issue of critical importance to both leaders.

People gather to celebrate Chinese President Xi Jinping's trip to the United States in Washington, DC, Sept. 23, in this Getty Images photo. AFP-Yonhap

US and China still have work to do on trade truce

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 on Wednesday, Bessent announced on Fox News that the two sides had come to terms on extending the trade truce, forged last year in Busan, South Korea. He said it's 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 U.S. tariffs reached 145 percent during last year's trade battle — matched by China’s reciprocal levies of 125 percent. After Trump and Xi met in South Korea last year , the average U.S. tariff rate fell to roughly 47 percent, while China charged an average in the mid-30s. But in February, the U.S. 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 U.S. soybeans and aircraft.

There might not be a breakthrough during this week’s visit but both leaders seem to be determined to avoid a breakdown, said Ryan Hass, a senior China policy adviser in former President Barack Obama's administration.

“Both sides are going to be managing for small gains and conflict avoidance, and that is going to be sort of the spirit through which both leaders approach this conversation,” said Hass, who is now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

A breakthrough on Iran seems unlikely

Trump has argued to little effect that China, which is far more dependent on Gulf oil than the U.S., has plenty of incentive to use its sway with Tehran to help force an end to the conflict.

But Trump's war of choice has unnerved Beijing, with the government condemning the U.S. and Israeli military action and Xi expressing concerns the conflict signaled a return to what he called the “law of the jungle."

The Chinese were also unsettled by the military operation Trump ordered to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power and sweep him off to New York City to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.

Trump has since pressured Latin American nations to reduce economic and political ties with China — and justified a push for U.S. involvement in Venezuela’s oil industry by pointing to concerns about Chinese and Russian influence on the South American country.

“China is very nervous about the kind of 19th-century imperialist cast of geopolitics that Trump has been pursuing,” said Jake Werner, director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute. “But at the same time, Beijing really sees the U.S.-China relationship as the decisive factor. They don’t want to move in a way that’s going to blow up the U.S. relationship.”

Xi expected to press Trump to end Taiwan arms sales

China has made clear it views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in the U.S.-China relationship.

Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory and vows to annex the island by force if necessary. The U.S. is obligated by law to provide Taiwan with sufficient hardware to deter any armed attack from the mainland.

China has pressed Washington to permanently halt the arms sales , most prominently when Trump and Xi met in Beijing in May.

After that meeting, Trump said he was holding off on final approval for a record-breaking $14 billion arms package that was in the pipeline. He also described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

The U.S. president may be motivated to keep the pause on until at least the end of the year, analysts say.

Trump, who sees face-to-face meetings with Xi as a key part in maintaining stability in the relationship, wants the Chinese president to attend the Group of 20 summit in December at his resort in Doral, Fla.

Xi, meanwhile, wants Trump to show up to November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.

“I think that keeping things where they are now, with the arms sales pushed off, would count as a win for Beijing,” Hass said.

周四，唐纳德·特朗普和中国国家主席习近平在白宫会晤，双方在贸易、台湾、伊朗和人工智能保障措施等问题上存在分歧。周三，双方同意将贸易休战期延长两个月，推迟原定于11月10日的最后期限。特朗普将以国事访问的隆重仪式接待习近平，两位领导人似乎都认为时间对己方有利。

双方周三达成协议，避免贸易休战协议于11月10日立即失效，因此该协议延长了两个月。

预计特朗普和习近平将讨论中国要求美国停止对台军售以及放宽对先进芯片出口限制的呼吁。

美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特表示，两国领导人可能对建立新的人工智能事件通报机制持开放态度，该机制旨在应对可能影响国家安全的人工智能事件。

特朗普所在的共和党在11月中期选举前面临压力，而习近平则在应对中国经济发展不平衡的问题。

周四晚间国宴的宾客名单包括亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯、英伟达的黄仁勋和Meta的马克·扎克伯格。

发布于2026年9月24日下午1:26（韩国标准时间）

9月23日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普（右）在马里兰州安德鲁斯联合基地举行的欢迎仪式上迎接中国国家主席习近平后，走上红毯。（图片来源：Getty Images，法新社/韩联社）

华盛顿——美国总统唐纳德·特朗普和国家主席习近平周四在白宫举行会谈时，有很多棘手的问题需要讨论。

中国一直抵制特朗普政府的敦促——以及经济威胁——即利用其强大的影响力迫使伊朗接受美国提出的结束这场持续近七个月战争的条件。习近平希望特朗普永久停止对台军售，并放宽对尖端芯片的出口限制。周三，双方同意将原定于11月10日到期的为期一年的贸易休战协议延长两个月，暂时搁置了达成更持久协议的问题。

与此同时，两位领导人似乎都认为时间站在自己这边，他们希望在未来几年内这场预计将是世界上最重要的经济和国家安全竞争中胜过对方。

“总统坚信，随着时间的推移，美国经济将会增长，美国将会变得更加强大，美国将在人工智能和技术领域不断取得进步，而且……美国将会开发出关键矿产和稀土的替代来源，”曾在特朗普和拜登总统任期内负责东亚政策的国务院高级官员埃德加·卡根表示。“我认为，当习近平与唐纳德·特朗普会面时，他坚信美国正在迅速衰落，而时间站在中国一边。”

而特朗普则全力以赴，为习近平的国事访问营造盛大的氛围。

共和党领导人以隆重的姿态拉开了此次访问的序幕，周三晚上，习近平主席亲自到华盛顿郊外迎接习近平主席和夫人彭丽媛。

特朗普已明确表示希望通过此次访问给习近平留下深刻印象，为此他特意确保白宫南草坪上新建的直升机停机坪在习近平到访前完工。他还公开抱怨，原计划在周四晚间为习近平举办的盛大国宴，其白宫宴会厅尚未准备就绪。

出席嘉宾包括亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯、英伟达的黄仁勋和 Meta 的马克·扎克伯格等科技巨头，他们都就人工智能开发竞赛中是否需要更多保障措施表明了立场——这个问题对两位领导人来说都至关重要。

9月23日，人们聚集在华盛顿特区，庆祝中国国家主席习近平访美。（图片来自Getty Images，法新社/韩联社）

美国和中国在贸易休战方面仍有许多工作要做。

美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特表示，两国领导人可能对建立一套新的“通报机制”持开放态度，以应对可能影响国家安全的AI事件。但在AI以及其他诸多棘手问题上，两国领导人能否取得进展仍不明朗。

习近平周三抵达华盛顿后不久，贝森特在福克斯新闻上宣布，双方已就延长去年在韩国釜山达成的贸易休战协议达成一致。他表示，特朗普和习近平有可能在明年1月达成一项更广泛的协议，或者只是决定再次延长该协议。

特朗普和习近平当然有动力维持停火协议。

特朗普领导的共和党在11月的中期选举中正面临重重阻力，力图保住国会控制权，而且几乎无法承受进一步的经济动荡。与此同时，习近平正努力应对中国经济的不平衡局面——国内经济步履维艰，而高科技出口依然强劲。

去年贸易战期间，美国对华关税最高达到145%，中国则采取了125%的对等加征。去年特朗普和习近平在韩国会晤后，美国平均关税税率降至约47%，而中国则降至30%左右。但今年2月，美国最高法院推翻了特朗普的多项关税措施，导致对华商品的关税税率出现更大波动。

贝森特宣布的临时措施比双方最近几周提出的方案期限要短。

中方曾表示希望将贸易休战期延长至特朗普2029年1月任期结束。

与此同时，特朗普政府官员建议将期限延长三到六个月，因为中国在稀土出口以及美国大豆和飞机进口方面一直未能履行过去的承诺，这才是更合适的期限。

前总统奥巴马政府的高级中国政策顾问瑞安·哈斯表示，本周的访问可能不会取得突破，但两位领导人似乎都决心避免关系破裂。

“双方都将力求取得小幅进展并避免冲突，这大概就是两位领导人进行此次对话的精神，”目前在华盛顿布鲁金斯学会工作的哈斯说道。

在伊朗问题上取得突破似乎不太可能

特朗普曾辩称，中国比美国更依赖海湾石油，因此有足够的动机利用其对德黑兰的影响力来帮助结束冲突，但他的论点收效甚微。

但特朗普选择的这场战争令北京感到不安，中国政府谴责了美国和以色列的军事行动，习近平也表示担忧，认为这场冲突标志着回归他所谓的“丛林法则”。

特朗普下令军事行动，将委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗赶下台，并将其押往纽约市，面临联邦毒品恐怖主义和毒品走私指控，这令中国人感到不安。

此后，特朗普一直向拉丁美洲国家施压，要求它们减少与中国的经济和政治联系——并以担心中国和俄罗斯对这个南美国家的影响为由，为推动美国参与委内瑞拉石油行业辩护。

昆西国际关系研究所东亚项目主任杰克·沃纳表示：“中国对特朗普奉行的那种带有19世纪帝国主义色彩的地缘政治感到非常不安。但与此同时，北京确实将美中关系视为决定性因素。他们不希望采取任何会破坏美中关系的行动。”

习近平预计将向特朗普施压，要求其停止向台湾出售武器。

中国已明确表示，台湾问题是中美关系中最敏感的问题。

北京视台湾为中国领土，并誓言必要时将以武力吞并该岛。美国依法有义务向台湾提供足够的武器装备，以威慑来自大陆的任何武装攻击。

中国一直敦促华盛顿永久停止对华武器销售，最引人注目的是特朗普和习近平在5月于北京会晤时。

会后，特朗普表示，他将暂缓最终批准一项价值140亿美元的破纪录军售计划。他还称，对台军售是与中国谈判的“非常有效的筹码”。

分析人士称，美国总统可能有动机将暂停令至少维持到年底。

特朗普认为与习近平的面对面会晤是维持两国关系稳定的关键，他希望中国国家主席出席12月在他位于佛罗里达州多拉尔的度假村举行的二十国集团峰会。

与此同时，习近平希望特朗普出席11月在中国深圳举行的亚太经合组织峰会。

哈斯说：“我认为，如果军售推迟，维持现状，对北京来说将算是一种胜利。”