US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing on Thursday, greeting each other with a handshake on a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People before beginning high‑stakes talks.
The two leaders are scheduled to attend a state banquet later in the evening, with tariffs, technology competition, the Iran war and Taiwan on the agenda, BBC reports.
In his opening remarks, Xi said, “The whole world is watching our meeting. Currently transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe and the international situation is fluid and turbulent.”
“The world has come to a new crossroads. Can China and the US overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interest of our world, of our two peoples, and the future of humanity, build a brighter future for our bilateral relations?” Xi asked.
“These are the questions vital to history, to the world, and to the people. They are the questions of our times that you and I need to answer as leaders of major countries,” he added, calling for the two nations to be partners, not rivals.
Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts a welcoming ceremony for visiting U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of a major bilateral meeting in Beijing. https://t.co/yu8DpOEnHK
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Trump is accompanied by US tech executives, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. Before arriving, he said he would press China to “open up” to US industry.
Trump, who last visited Beijing in 2017, returns to a stronger and more assertive China keen to project itself as a stable global power.
The visit was originally scheduled for March but postponed due to the Iran war.
