Trump and Xi meet this week

President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet at the White House this week for a high-stakes state visit to discuss multiple contentious issues.

“We're going to talk about a lot. It's going to be a great meeting.”

First Chinese state visit in over a decade

Wednesday's visit marks the first state visit to the U.S. by a Chinese leader in more than a decade. Xi was last in the U.S. for a state visit in September two thousand fifteen.

Arrival ceremony at Joint Base Andrews

Trump will greet Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday when his plane lands late that evening. The airport greeting is unusual for Trump, who traditionally greets foreign leaders at the White House.

State dinner with tech executives

On Thursday, Trump and first lady Melania Trump will host Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan for a state dinner in the East Room. Guests include Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook.

“Thousands of people would love to be at that dinner.”

Taiwan arms sale at stake

Taiwan will be top of mind for Xi, who has repeatedly called for an end to U.S. arms sales to the self-governing, democratic island. Xi is likely to push Trump to pause a proposed fourteen billion dollar arms sale.

Xi warned of conflict over Taiwan

In their May meeting, Xi warned Trump that if Taiwan is handled improperly, the two nations could come into conflict, according to China's official state broadcaster Xinhua.

China's support for Iran divides them

The continuing conflict with Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz has dealt an economic blow to the U.S. as it grapples with historically high gas and diesel prices.

Trump downplays China's Iran ties

Trump has notably downplayed taking action against China despite the U.S. stated goal of targeting all countries with financial ties to Iran. Trump said China has behaved reasonably well.

“I think he's behaved reasonably well.”

Democrats call for Iran confrontation

Several Democratic lawmakers called on Trump to challenge Xi on Iran when the two meet. They said Trump has an important opportunity to condemn China's role in arming and enabling Iran.

AI guardrails on the agenda

Artificial intelligence will be discussed between Xi and Trump. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides discussed setting up a notification system if there is an incident that rises to a national security level from AI.

Tariff truce may be renewed

On trade, experts predict the two leaders plan to renew a tariff truce and potentially announce additional trade deals on agriculture, aircraft, rare-earth and critical minerals, and Chinese purchase commitments.

Few deliverables expected

Experts expect few deliverables from the Thursday summit. Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the summit will be relatively underwhelming with a small number of deliverables.

“This is going to be a summit that's relatively underwhelming with a small number of deliverables, but I think that works mainly to China's advantage.”