Xi says US-China 'should be partners rather than rivals' as state visit begins

Chicago Council poll finds 57% of Americans favor cooperation with Beijing

Xi says US and China ‘should be partners rather than rivals’ in state-visit statement

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the United States and China “should be partners rather than rivals” in a written statement published Wednesday by the official Xinhua news agency, as he arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for his first state visit to Washington since 2015. In the statement, Xi said both countries are “great nations, and their people are great people.” He added that “realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can fully coexist, reinforce each other and benefit the world,” and expressed confidence the visit would “yield fruitful results.”

A recent Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll indicated that American attitudes toward China appear to be softening. The poll found that 41% of Americans see China’s territorial ambitions as a threat to the US, down from 52% in 2022. More than half of Americans — 57% — said the US should cooperate and engage with Beijing, a position that cut across the political spectrum. Of Republicans who do not identify as Maga, 57% favoured cooperation, as did most Democrats, both moderate and liberal. Among Trump’s loyal supporters, however, 63% favoured limiting US relations with China, putting them at odds with the president’s warm welcome of Xi.

The visit opened with rare protocol. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday evening. Xi touched down in an Air China plane at 17:39 local time, according to the BBC. The colour guard and honour guard marched up to the aircraft and stood on either side of a 100-foot red carpet as two limousines pulled up. After the couples shook hands and spoke briefly, they walked side by side down the red carpet and posed for photographs as two B-1 bombers flew overhead and the Army Air Force Band played the US national anthem. After exchanging pleasantries, the two couples departed in separate vehicles to Washington. The airport welcome is the first of its kind since President John F Kennedy greeted British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962, the BBC reported.

Also on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the US and China will extend their trade truce to January. The underlying agreement, set to expire 10 November, saw Trump lower tariff rates on some Chinese goods in exchange for Xi loosening restrictions on rare earth minerals. Bessent, who spoke after meeting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, said the two officials discussed whether a more substantive trade deal could eventually be reached.

Melania Trump told Fox News that she was intimately involved in planning the itinerary. Trump made the decision to greet Xi personally at the airport “because they have a great relationship,” she said.

Xi traveled with a delegation that included Cai Qi, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee widely seen as his right-hand man; Vice Premier He Lifeng; Foreign Minister Wang Yi; and other delegates and ambassadors from Beijing. It is unclear if Xi brought any business executives with him. Bringing Chinese firms to the US may also raise questions about Chinese business practices, subsidies and overcapacity, all of which may draw more fire and questions than Xi or his party would like. During Trump’s visit to Beijing in May, he was accompanied by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

The agenda is expected to include closed-door meetings, a state dinner Thursday, and discussions spanning artificial intelligence, trade, Taiwan, and the Iran war. Leaders of US artificial intelligence companies are slated to attend the state dinner, according to the BBC. Trump has dismissed recent warnings from within the AI industry about the technology’s potential dangers as a “hoax,” and both countries are racing to achieve dominance in the sector.

David Firestein of the Bush China Foundation said Trump would aim for further trade and tariff deals, including lowering Chinese tariffs on American products, increasing imports of Chinese rare earth minerals, and increasing US agricultural exports. China has reneged on promises to buy more American agricultural products and to sell more rare earth minerals to the US, Firestein said. He expects Xi to encourage Trump to stall or kill a congressionally approved $14bn (£10.5bn) arms sale to Taiwan and to deepen US-China trade integration. Despite these long-standing disputes, Firestein said the relationship currently shows “a greater degree of, let’s say, stability within the relationship, or less volatility relative to where we were last year in 2025.”

Beyond the arrival ceremony and state dinner, Melania Trump has planned a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art to show her Chinese counterpart cultural connections between the two countries. The visit will close on Friday at the National Archives, where the couples will view records significant to the American-Chinese relationship, the White House said.

Additional reporting came from Brandon Drenon.