Chinese leader’s whirlwind US state visit rich in pageantry sees American president pull out all the stops
2-MIN READ2-MINNayan Sethin WashingtonPublished: 3:47am, 26 Sep 2026Chinese President Xi Jinping has completed a whirlwind 43-hour trip to the United States, his first state visit to the country in more than a decade, with US President Donald Trump pulling out all the stops to make it a grand affair.The two leaders met several times during the visit, including at a ceremonial airport welcome, the White House reception and bilateral talks on a wide range of topics including trade, tariffs and Taiwan.They also attended a state dinner in Xi’s honour with top business leaders, held a tea meeting and visited the National Archives. Here are the key takeaways.
01:18Trump takes Xi on tour of National Archives as part of US state visitBoth sides also finalised the Board of Trade mechanism and are set to announce non-sensitive sectors and products capped at US$30 billion each for tariff reduction.
US trade chief Jamieson Greer told CNBC on Friday that Washington and Beijing had reached an agreement on a slice of “managed trade” and that more of it would be published on Monday.
