kicks off a three-day visit<\/a> that’s expected to be saturated with pomp, even by White House standards. The state visit, complete with a formal state dinner at the White House, is supposed to reciprocate the ceremonial grandeur that marked Trump’s May visit to China.<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/president-donald-trump-and-first-lady-melania-trump-greet-ch-AZB4CMMYIFAAVKX7VQBPBFILJ4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan as they arrive at Joint Base Andrews (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
But it is also a showy patina at a time when tensions between the two geopolitical rivals are high over trade, artificial intelligence, Trump’s war with Iran and China’s designs on Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Beyond using the visit to try to keep \u201cstrategic stability\u201d between the two countries, Trump has lavished praise on Xi as a \u201cgreat leader\u201d and described a warm relationship with the man he has called a friend. That is all while he has given Xi a pass on many issues.<\/p>\n
Trump has made it clear he wants to wow Xi, telling reporters in recent weeks that he was delighted his new \u201cwork of art\u201d helicopter landing pad would be ready for the visit while bemoaning that his massive White House ballroom would not.<\/p>\n
Trump has made it clear he wants to wow Xi, telling reporters in recent weeks that he was delighted his new \u201cwork of art\u201d helicopter landing pad would be ready for the visit while bemoaning that his massive White House ballroom would not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish we had it for tomorrow night,” Trump said. “We have a packed house tomorrow night for President Xi.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump was looking to match the pageantry he saw in China earlier this year. Xi was not at the airport to meet Trump \u2014 Chinese Vice President Han Zheng was there instead. But a red carpet was rolled out to meet Air Force One in Beijing. <\/p>\n
![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/president-donald-trump-walks-with-chinas-vice-president-han-2PFJTCOXKNBXXOYEXT2GH5EMK4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump walks with China’s Vice President Han Zheng during a welcome ceremony Wednesday, May 13 (local time), 2026, at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
A military honour guard, a military band and about 300 Chinese youths waving Chinese and American flags and chanting, \u201cWelcome, welcome! Warm welcome!\u201d were also present. The children wore white and light blue uniforms that mirrored the traditional paint colours of the presidential plane.<\/p>\n
The first lady said that her husband decided to personally greet Xi when he arrived in the Washington region because \u201cthey have a great relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s coming on our soil, and we need to welcome them with the most respect,\u201d she said of Xi and his wife during an interview on Fox News Channel\u2019s Fox & Friends.<\/p>\n
The long red carpet recalled a similar extra-long one the US laid out for Russian President Vladimir Putin when he touched down at a US Air Force base in Alaska last summer for a summit aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
When Putin arrived in August 2025, he shook hands with Trump while both grinned. They then took the unusual step of climbing into Trump\u2019s limo to share a ride to the building where they were holding talks.<\/p>\n
At the end of the arrival ceremony, Xi and his wife climbed into their own car, and the Trumps retreated to theirs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington, where President Donald Trump met him with a rare planeside greeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2300,65,42,43,64,40,38,41,39,66],"class_list":["post-610131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/president-donald-trump-and-first-lady-melania-trump-along-wi-GV3GN4LY5BB7TBOLVU64Y36JPA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n