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Laura Zhou

Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the US this autumn, the first in more than a decade, as the two powers seek stability amid their deepening rivalry.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed late on Friday that Xi would make the trip at the invitation of his US counterpart Donald Trump.
“Both sides should work together to make thorough preparations, create a favourable atmosphere, and achieve more substantive outcomes for the interactions and exchanges between the two heads of state,” Wang said.
Shortly after leaving Beijing following his summit with Xi, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he and his Chinese counterpart would meet three more times this year.
He said Xi asked him to take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, which is scheduled for November. “I’m gonna try to be there,” he said.
He also said Xi wanted to attend the G20 summit in Miami in December, adding: “I’d like him to come.”
At a state banquet in Beijing on Thursday, Trump toasted to his Chinese host and extended an invitation for Xi to visit the White House.
The proposed trip, which Trump said could take place on September 24, would mark the first state visit by a Chinese leader to the US since September 2015.
At that time, Xi was hosted by then president Barack Obama. Six months later, he returned to the American capital for the Nuclear Security Summit.
On Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry said the two sides had “maintained communication regarding the arrangements for interaction between the two heads of state within the year”.
According to a Chinese statement released after the summit on Thursday, the two sides agreed to extend support for each other’s turn hosting the Apec and G20 meetings.

Before Thursday, the two leaders had met six times, including Xi’s trip to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort in April 2017 and Trump’s visit to Beijing seven months later.
The two leaders also met at the G20 summits in Hamburg in 2017, Buenos Aires in 2018 and Osaka in 2019.
In November last year, Xi and Trump met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. In what was their first meeting since Trump returned to the White House, the two sides agreed to a one-year truce in their bitter trade war. Before those talks, Washington had imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing had retaliated with strict export controls on rare earth elements and other critical minerals.
While expectations are not high that the two sides will reach major deals to resolve their deep differences, there is hope that continued meetings between the leaders could help reduce the risk of miscalculation.
China has emphasised the importance of “head-of-state diplomacy” which it says plays “an irreplaceable strategic guiding role”, particularly in the country’s relationship with the US.


Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University, said key questions remain unanswered about how the two sides could manage the difficult issues in their relationship.
“Where [did] they come from? Which are structural, situational and idiosyncratic? What costs or mutual concessions are required for managing them? Without answers acceptable to both, it remains just rhetoric.”
According to the Chinese statement, Xi and Trump agreed on “a new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability”, which would guide ties for the next three years and beyond.
However, the summary of the meeting from the White House made no mention of this vision.
Meanwhile, flashpoints remain – the US statement did not mention Taiwan but Trump later told Fox News that US policy towards the island remained unchanged.
He also gave an ambiguous answer when asked if he would approve a proposed US$14 billion arms package for Taiwan – possibly the largest ever for the self-ruled island and a particularly thorny issue for Beijing.
Trump said he might or might not approve the sale.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
Shi warned that uncertainties in the Middle East could also weigh on the relationship between the two leaders.


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According to the US president, leaders could meet three more times this year, though experts doubt this will fix major issues


According to the US president, leaders could meet three more times this year, though experts doubt this will fix major issues.


China’s Xi Jinping to pay first state visit to US in more than a decade

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}According to the US president, leaders could meet three more times this year, though experts doubt this will fix major issues

According to the US president, leaders could meet three more times this year, though experts doubt this will fix major issues