US President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday for a state visit and lavish dinner, with the two governments agreeing to extend their trade truce by two months until January 10, 2026. The extension preserves lower bilateral tariffs and continued Chinese rare earth supplies while negotiators pursue a larger economic deal.
The summit marked the leaders’ second meeting this year and Xi’s first trip to Washington since September 2015. It included an arrival ceremony, military review, private Oval Office meeting, expanded bilateral session, and a state dinner attended by more than 130 guests.
Artificial intelligence was a central theme. Xi said the United States and China are leading AI nations with a shared responsibility to keep development “always under human control.” Trump said choices on security, technology and AI could promote peace and prosperity for decades, while signaling little appetite for binding limits. In a Truth Social post, he wrote: “Our guardrail is the DOJ!”
Tech executives at the dinner included Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai. Wall Street leaders such as JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman also attended. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were among government officials present.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the truce extension Wednesday evening after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. The arrangement originated at the leaders’ October 2025 meeting in Busan, South Korea, and had been due to expire on November 10. Bessent said China was meeting its commitment to buy 25 million tons of US soybeans but lagging on a $17 billion pledge for other agricultural goods and rare earths. He also pointed to possible announcements on financial services and farm purchases.
Financial markets traded lower on Thursday, pressured mainly by bonds. The S&P 500 fell 0.51%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.32%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.78%. The 10-year Treasury yield held near 5.10%, the highest since 2007, while the 30-year yield touched 5.43%, the highest since 2004.
The leaders may meet again at the APEC summit in Shenzhen in November and the G20 in Miami in December, ahead of the January 10 deadline. Protests near the White House included chants of “Free Hong Kong” and “Free Tibet,” with several arrests reported.
