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What did we learn from the Trump-Xi summit?
President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping wrap up their two-day summit. What did we learn beyond the pageantry?
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping wrapped up their nearly two-day summit this afternoon. Both leaders framed the talks as productive, substantive and, as President Trump said, great for both countries. But neither leader went into the details of what was agreed upon or why these discussions were so great. NPR international correspondent Rob Schmitz joins us here in the studio to talk about this. Hey, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: It's sometimes hard to figure out the details from...
SCHMITZ: It is.
DETROW: ...Remarks like this. What do we know?
SCHMITZ: Yeah. I mean, expectations for this summit were pretty low, and both leaders seemed to deliver on those expectations as far as we can tell. This morning, President Trump and President Xi had tea at the White House, and they had positive things to say about the discussions. Xi called them substantive, and Trump used the word great, saying that U.S. farmers will be happy - a hint, perhaps, that Beijing may start making good on its promise to purchase more American agricultural products.
The two said they'd meet two more times this year, one at the APEC conference in China in November and again in Miami for the G20 summit in December. And the U.S. announced the trade truce with China will be extended another two months to the end of the year. But from what we've seen over the past few days, this mostly seemed like an opportunity for President Trump to put on a lavish welcome for the leader of a country that has become one of America's biggest competitors and rivals.
DETROW: On that note, he went to some extraordinary lengths. He went out to Joint Base Andrews to meet Xi on the tarmac. They had that lavish state dinner. Is there a sense that that helps in any way the U.S.-China relationship?
SCHMITZ: So I spoke with Julian Gewirtz about this. He was an advisor on China at the National Security Council during the Biden administration, and here's what he said about that.
JULIAN GEWIRTZ: I don't think Xi Jinping is going to fly back to Beijing and say, when he meets with the Pollock Bureau, hey, guys, I was wrong, the United States is our friend. But I do think there is a version of diplomacy with China that could be used quite effectively to lower tensions and buy time, but everything depends on what the United States does with the time it buys.
DETROW: And the idea of the time it buys - you mentioned that trade truce between the two countries for nearly a year.
SCHMITZ: Right.
DETROW: What has the U.S. done with that time?
SCHMITZ: Well, Scott, I mean, that's the key here. I mean, in that time, the Trump administration largely shifted its focus away from China. It started a war of choice with Iran. That's led to higher oil and gas prices worldwide. Now, the Trump administration says it's making the world a safer place from a potentially nuclear armed Iran. But in this time since the truce with Beijing was made, the U.S. and China have not made much progress on key issues like rare earth materials, managing AI, regional issues like South China Sea, Taiwan.
In the meantime, we've seen reports that, for its part, Beijing has lent intelligence support to Iran as it targets U.S. bases in the Middle East. So Gewirtz is saying this buying time strategy has benefited China over the U.S. and will likely continue to do so in the remaining time this truce between the two countries lasts.
DETROW: Rob, you covered China for NPR during President Trump's first term. How has his stance on China changed since then?
SCHMITZ: So a month after Trump was elected for his first term in 2016, he accepted a call from Tsai Ing-wen, then-president of Taiwan, and that shocked the China expert community because it broke with diplomatic protocol, the One China policy, and many experts were worried that it would offend Xi Jinping.
Ten years later, here we are with President Trump showing what some felt was deference towards Xi. China has become much stronger on the world stage in that time. And again, President Trump is being criticized for his stance on China, but this time, it's for being too cozy with China's leader, not for offending him. So the times have really changed.
DETROW: NPR's Rob Schmitz. Thanks so much.
SCHMITZ: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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What's at stake during the meeting between Trump and Xi
What’s at stake during the meeting between Trump and Xi
What can we expect from the Trump-Xi summit? NPR's A Martinez asks Daniel Kritenbrink, an assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the Biden administration.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more of what's at stake during this visit, Daniel Kritenbrink joins us. He served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Beijing. He also was the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam during the first Trump administration and is now a partner with consulting firm The Asia Group. So Daniel, this is a state visit between the two largest economies, two largest military powers. What's the No. 1 thing that President Trump needs to accomplish?
DANIEL KRITENBRINK: Well, good morning, A. I think the most important outcome from this summit will be maintaining this so-called fragile truce between the two powers that was agreed to last year. If that truce is extended - if that stabilizes the relationship, prevents us from going back to that trade war - I think that's the single most important outcome. And, actually, I think that's what President Trump is focused on. It's optics, but it's optics designed to promote that stability.
MARTÍNEZ: What about for Xi Jinping?
KRITENBRINK: I think Xi Jinping is largely motivated by the same concerns. I enjoyed your setup a moment ago. I do think President Xi comes to Washington feeling extremely confident. He stood up to President Trump in the trade war. He showed that he can fight eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. But make no mistake about it. President Xi would like to have stability at home. The domestic economy in China is still quite sluggish, and he has his own domestic politics. And he hopes to have a fourth term next year, so he'll want this to go smoothly, but he's hoping for stability as well.
MARTÍNEZ: Do you glean anything from Trump meeting Xi personally on the tarmac?
KRITENBRINK: Well, it's extraordinary to me, A, just how much respect, if not admiration, President Trump seems to have for President Xi. He always praises President Xi as a great leader and a strong leader. The president does seem to have real admiration for such strong leaders. The fact that he went out to the airport, that there was this flyover - I think that's all designed to signal his tremendous respect for President Xi. But it really is quite unprecedented to see the president go that far in conveying that respect.
MARTÍNEZ: You said President Trump has respect and admiration for Xi Jinping. Is fear any part of that?
KRITENBRINK: Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that, but I would say this, A. When you think about where the Trump administration was last year, the president, you recall, in April, essentially launched a trade war against the Chinese. And the Chinese responded in a very robust way, particularly by cutting off rare earth exports to the United States as leverage. That caused the U.S. stock and bond markets to wobble, and I think that convinced the president that he'd had enough of this trade war with the Chinese and therefore wanted stability. So I don't think it's fear, but I think it's a practical approach to the issue. I think the president doesn't have the stomach for a full-on trade war...
MARTÍNEZ: When...
KRITENBRINK: ...With China. And I think that...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
KRITENBRINK: ...Has motivated his approach.
MARTÍNEZ: You know, when President Trump meets with other world leaders, Ambassador, it seems to me like both sides know what they want out of each other - so, say, when he meets with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. But why is it that when he meets with Xi Jinping, there's always a sense of things that are left unspoken in these meetings with the Chinese leader?
KRITENBRINK: Well, it's perhaps hard to say. But I think part of it is related to that respect that I talked about. But I also think, for the Trump administration, it's quite clear their priority No. 1 is trade, and I think the president doesn't focus as much on the other issues. So again, I think the core issue for this visit will be extension of that truce. But essentially, it's a trade truce, right?
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
KRITENBRINK: China agrees to keep its rare earth exports flowing to the United States and others, and the United States agrees to curb some of its most restrictive tech-export controls on China. That's the core of the truth. I think that's what will get extended. I think that's what the president really cares about above all other issues. And so I don't think you'll see human rights issues feature that prominently in the visit, if at all. And I also think security issues will take a backseat to the trade issues.
MARTÍNEZ: So no Taiwan mentions from either of the two, either on the record or off the record.
KRITENBRINK: Well, no. Now, that, I would say, is a different matter. I'm confident that Taiwan will come up, as it always does in every visit, in every meeting between the United States and China. But I wouldn't expect Taiwan to dominate the visit, like it seemed to do in Beijing. I think both sides will state their views. We do have to watch this closely. But I'm skeptical there would be any breakthrough on Taiwan or, for that matter, any other major issue.
MARTÍNEZ: Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Beijing and is now a partner with The Asia Group. Thank you very much for your time.
KRITENBRINK: Thank you so much, A.
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Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
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Special to WorldTribune, September 23, 2026 Real World News
Geostrategy-Direct, September 22, 2026
By Richard Fisher
On the eve of his Sept. 23-25 visit to Washington, D,C. for his second summit this year with President Donald Trump, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping got a significant message.
Like the rest of the world, he learned that now the United States, like China, has weapons in space.
After years of watching China and Russia accumulate military capabilities in space, on Sept. 14 and 15, senior United States Department of War officials used the 2026 U.S. Air and Space Force Association Air, Space & Cyber convention (AFA 26) to announce that the U.S. also has weapons in space.
On Sept. 14, U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated:
“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist. This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
The next day, Sept. 15 at AFA 26, U.S. Space Force Commander Gen. Douglas Schiess confirmed Secretary Meink’s announcement saying:
“Space is both a battlefield and the backbone of our Joint Force. We face determined and credible adversaries who are building and fielding counterspace systems at incredible speeds to target directly the United States’ space advantage.
That is why we don’t just monitor the domain, we stand ready to defend it. So let me be crystal clear: Today, Guardians operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the Joint Force against space-enabled attacks…We will make disciplined and responsible choices about how we build and sustain our combat advantage, which means scaling our ability to respond to threats.”
Neither Secretary Meink nor Gen. Schiess offered details regarding current U.S. space weapons or combat capabilities that the U.S. Space Force controls in orbit, perhaps deciding that “ambiguity” regarding this capability offered the best opportunity to deter Chinese and Russian space aggression.
But Gen. Schiess did make mention of a “Victus Haze” exercise that:
“[E]arlier this year demonstrated the ability to launch and respond to an on-demand to an on-orbit threat in just 17 hours. Space Systems Command, our industry partners, and Combat Forces Command proved to the world that if an adversary targets the United States Space Force, we have the capability to deliver a swift response and we are going to continue working on getting faster and faster.”
On June 19, less than 17 hours after receiving the call to do so, from its launch pad in New Zealand, the New Zealand-U.S. company Rocket Lab launched one of its Electron liquid fueled rockets carrying its Puma satellite that performed maneuvering exercises around the Jackal satellite of the U.S. 2022 startup company True Anomaly.
This exercise demonstrated that the U.S. Space Force has the ability to find a space threat and then to quickly organize and launch an interceptor satellite that can identify and monitor the space threat, with an implied current or future capability to attack that the same threat.
Gen. Schiess also noted:
“Today’s advantage cannot be assumed for tomorrow. We face determined and credible adversaries who are building and fielding counterspace systems at incredible speeds to target directly the United States’ space advantage…That is why we don’t just monitor the domain. We stand ready to defend it.”
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US President Donald Trump treated Chinese President Xi Jinping to a rare personal airport welcome Wednesday, kicking off a pomp-filled state visit aimed at smoothing superpower tensions on everything from AI and trade to Iran.
Trump and First Lady Melania shook hands with Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan after the Chinese president descended from his plane at Joint Base Andrews, a US military airfield outside Washington.
Trump, wearing a long coat and gloves, and Xi then stood side by side on the tarmac as a military band played national anthems.
A noisy flyover by two B-1 bombers clearly jolted Trump, who grimaced at the roar of jets, while his Chinese guest stood by impassively.
The personal airport greeting -- a courtesy Trump was notably denied when he visited Beijing in May -- begins three days of pageantry that will include another flyover and a state banquet at the White House on Thursday.
Six F-22 fighter jets and six F-16s were lined up on the tarmac in an apparent display of military might as US officials literally rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese leader.
But expectations of any breakthroughs are low. Analysts say the main aim of the lavish spectacle is to maintain a fragile diplomatic and trade truce between the world's biggest economies.
Xi was accompanied by his right-hand man Cai Qi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, among others, according to Chinese state media.
There were no Chinese CEOs in Xi's delegation, two sources told AFP, despite the fact that top US tech bosses including the leaders of major AI companies are set to attend Thursday's White House state banquet.
Xi's visit will wrap up on Friday morning when the two presidential couples have tea at the White House and then visit the National Archives, home to the US Declaration of Independence.
- Trade war truce extended -
When the two leaders sit down for their highly anticipated talks on Thursday, they will be confronting a host of thorny issues led by fears -- boosted by warnings from tech CEOs -- that artificial intelligence risks wiping out humanity.
But with China and the United States racing for AI supremacy there are few expectations of any deal to regulate the rapidly advancing technology.
Preliminary talks on Sunday between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng included discussion of creating a communication channel for AI concerns.
There was one success Wednesday, when after further talks Bessent announced an extension of a truce in the simmering trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
The "economic detente" will now extend beyond its November 10 deadline to January 10, Bessent said.
Jonathan Czin of the Brookings Institution told AFP that expectations were low for any concrete results from the meeting but "I think there will be some extension of the gentleman's agreement."
Analysts said that China had meanwhile begun to look past Trump, whose second term ends in early 2029, and is in many ways playing for time and using the truce to consolidate its position.
- 'Oppressive dictator' -
Trump's five-star welcome for Xi has drawn criticism from China hawks within his own party, especially amid reports that Beijing supplied Iran with intelligence for attacks on US troops.
"Our commander-in-chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator," said Republican Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
Trump, however, has played down the need to bring up the allegations of Chinese help for Iran, justifying it on the grounds that both Beijing and Washington spy on each other.
For Trump, Xi's visit is also a chance to focus on pageantry instead of problems at home, where the Iran war's effect on fuel prices has sent his approval rating plummeting to historic lows ahead of midterm elections in November.
American presidents very rarely travel to the airport to greet foreign leaders, although Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin off his plane in Alaska last year.
The last such welcomes at Andrews -- apart from papal visits -- are believed to be John F. Kennedy's welcome for British prime minister Harold Macmillan in 1962, and Dwight D. Eisenhower's for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1959.
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As President Trump and China's President Xi prepare to meet, Rush Doshi of the Council on Foreign Relations explains the current state of U.S.-China relations and what to expect from this summit.
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Watch: Trump and Xi are meeting on US soil - what's at stake?
US President Donald Trump will host Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week in Washington.
The BBC's China correspondent Laura Bicker and US editor Sarah Smith explain what's at stake for the two global superpowers.
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