Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an address from the White House Thursday morning during his historic second state visit to the U.S. at the invitation of President Donald Trump.
Xi is the first Chinese leader to make a second state visit to the U.S., according to Trump. This is also the world leaders’ second summit in just over four months, after the president visited Xi in Beijing in May.
Like Trump, who delivered a short address just before him, Xi remarked on the strength of their relationship and the importance of finding “common ground” between the two countries.
“China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth, and continued dialog, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust,” Xi said.
Xi spoke of opening China’s market to American companies, which have faced a notoriously difficult and unpredictable business environment there, while calling for Chinese companies to receive fair treatment in the United States.
“China keeps its door wide open, welcomes American companies wanting to invest and do business there,” Xi said. “We hope Chinese companies are treated fairly here in the United States.”
He also remarked on artificial intelligence, as China and the U.S. are the world’s leading developers of the technology. While China’s use of AI and other technologies for domestic surveillance has been widely documented, Xi emphasized the countries’ mutual responsibility to “develop AI for good.”
They should “ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people,” he said.
Xi announced that China would open its doors to 100,000 American student exchanges and send two new pandas to the zoo in Atlanta as a symbol of goodwill and cooperation between the two nations.
Despite the differences between the democratic republic and communist state, and Trump’s frequent emphasis that the U.S. must beat China in the artificial intelligence race, the president has worked to maintain an active relationship with the Chinese president throughout both of his terms.
“From the time of my first election in 2016, President Xi and I have forged a friendship, a truly great friendship actually, built on mutual respect and the vital interests of our people. We have spent time together all over the world,” Trump said, “but remarkably, this is our first time meeting together here at the White House.”
Trump and Xi will discuss trade, security, technology and superintelligence during the visit, according to the White House.
Trump noted that the Chinese leader is visiting not long after America’s 250th anniversary and that the two will visit the National Archives to view the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Xi is not the first Chinese president to visit the White House. Former President Ronald Reagan welcomed then-Chinese President Li Xiannan in 1985, followed by multiple successors during the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations.
“The decisions we make in these areas today can promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come,” Trump said.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump participated in a gift exchange with Xi and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan before joining them for a military review in the Rose Garden, featuring demonstrations by U.S. service members and a military flyover. Thursday evening, the White House will host a state dinner for the world leaders with top executives from the business and technology sectors in attendance.
Xi arrived Wednesday evening and is expected to stay through part of Friday.
Demonstrators gathered outside the White House and the Chinese Embassy to protest the communist leader’s visit, particularly on behalf of Tibet and East Turkistan. Communist China has controlled the regions for more than 70 years, but many Tibetans and Uyghurs have fought to maintain their national and cultural identities.
On July 1, China implemented a new “ethnic unity” law mandating the teaching of standard Chinese in schools and seeking to subordinate distinct ethnic identities to a single Chinese national identity. The law builds on years of restrictions on minority cultures and codifies and expands aspects of the broader Sinicization policy, which has increasingly displaced minority languages, restricted religious practice and brought cultural institutions under greater state control.
