Beijing rolled out the red carpet. Now Trump and Xi have to figure out the rest.
Three hundred flag-waving children, a red carpet, skyscrapers lit up in welcome — China gave Trump an arrival to remember. What happens next is considerably less predictable.
President Trump arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport on Wednesday evening local time for his first state visit to China since 2017.
If there’s one thing Xi Jinping knows about Donald Trump, it’s that the man appreciates a grand entrance. So Beijing gave him one. As Air Force One touched down at Beijing Capital International Airport on Wednesday evening, 300 Chinese children in blue and white uniforms lined the tarmac, chanting “Welcome, welcome, enthusiastically welcome” in Mandarin and waving American and Chinese flags. The highway into the city was draped with both countries’ flags. Skyscrapers blazed with Chinese characters spelling out “Beijing Welcome.” Trump, descending the stairs, offered the crowd a fist pump.
It was, by any measure, a serious show of hospitality — and it was deliberate. China sent Vice President Han Zheng, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Xi’s trusted envoy for high-stakes diplomatic moments, to personally greet Trump at the base of the stairs. Han attended Trump’s inauguration last year. His presence at the airport is Beijing’s way of saying: we take this seriously.
“Great things will happen for both Countries!”
Trump posted that on Truth Social before departing. And it’s true that the two countries have reasons to want this week to go well. Tariffs that once hit 145% on Chinese goods have been dialed back. Trade tensions that threatened to spiral into something uglier have cooled, at least for now. And Xi is due to visit Washington later this year — a reciprocal trip that both sides clearly want to protect.
But the pomp on the tarmac shouldn’t be mistaken for easy agreement. The issues on the table this week — Taiwan, AI competition, Iran, trade — don’t have neat solutions, and both leaders know it. The formal bilateral meetings with Xi begin Thursday morning, and that’s when the real conversation starts.
