US, China should be partners, not rivals: Xi hails historic Trump visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday said the China-U.S. relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the current world. Addressing the banquet in Beijing, Xi said,"We must make it work, and never mess it up." "Our two countries should be partners rather than rivals," he added. Noting that China-U.S. relations concern the well-being of the over 1.7 billion people of both countries and affect the interests of the over 8 billion people of the world, Xi said both sides should rise up to this historical responsibility and steer the giant ship of China-U.S. relations forward steadily and in the right direction.
In his remarks at the banquet, Trump said the two sides had positive and constructive conversations. Noting that the U.S.-China relationship is the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world, Trump said the two countries should strengthen cooperation to create a better future for the world.Trump also announced that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping would be making a reciprocal visit to the White House on September 24.

From the Bilateral Meeting in Beijing:

President Trump had a good meeting with President Xi of China. pic.twitter.com/WaH8hR1ZV3

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 14, 2026

Earlier, in a closed-door meeting between the two leaders, Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump that trade talks were making progress at the start of a two-day summit on Thursday, but cautioned that disagreement over Taiwan could send relations down a dangerous path and even lead to conflict.Xi told Trump that preparatory negotiations between U.S. and Chinese economic and trade teams in South Korea on Wednesday had reached “balanced and positive outcomes”, China’s foreign ministry said in a summary. The talks aimed to maintain a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October, where Trump suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Xi backed away from choking global supplies of vital rare earths.