Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in US for state visit, gets rare tarmac welcome

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on Wednesday, where he was met with a rare planeside greeting from President Donald Trump after their top officials agreed to extend a trade truce until January. 

Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the extension of the truce — under which the countries agreed to scale back tariffs and refrain from imposing new trade restrictions — during a News Channel interview as Trump welcomed Xi at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington.

“I don’t



know whether a bigger deal can be done. I don’t know whether we will just roll the current deal,” Bessent said in the interview, noting the extension would give the leaders more time to talk about the issues at upcoming meetings in China in November and Florida in December.

Trump’s decision to greet Xi as he landed, rather than waiting for him to drive up to the White House, shows how far the U.S. president is willing to go to honor China's leader as he made his first state visit to the U.S. capital in more than a decade.