Trump, Xi Use Conciliatory Language at White House State Dinner

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping used conciliatory language about U.S.-China relations at a White House state dinner after daytime discussions on Taiwan, trade and artificial intelligence.

The Sept. 24 dinner took place in the East Room during Xi’s three-day visit to Washington. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended the event.

Trump said the United States and China represent different systems but that ties between their people remain strong.

“President Xi and I both understand we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said.

Xi said the leaders had held “sincere and in-depth exchanges” and reached a common understanding on many issues. Referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda and China’s “great national rejuvenation,” Xi said the two goals were ambitious and could reinforce each other.

The leaders’ daytime meetings covered Taiwan, trade and AI. The official statements released publicly after the dinner did not detail new agreements on those issues, leaving earlier trade understandings as the main concrete commitments.

Those commitments included reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion of goods in each direction, at least $17 billion in annual Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products and a Chinese commitment to buy 200 Boeing aircraft.

The dinner’s menu included yellow squash velouté, sesame-crusted sea bass and vanilla crémeux with White House honey ice cream.

The event followed the leaders’ competing positions on AI during their White House meeting. Their earlier White House AI discussions highlighted different approaches to governing the technology, with Xi emphasizing human control and Trump rejecting a global framework.

The dinner marked the latest formal event in Xi’s Washington visit, which runs through Sept. 25.