Xi Jinping flew home from Washington on Saturday with an eight-point agreement, a new council for trade talks and a deal that had two giant pandas in Atlanta by Sunday.
The three-day state visit ended on Friday, 25 September, with tea at the White House and a joint visit to the National Archives, where the two leaders looked at the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, landed back in Beijing on 26 September.
On paper, the result is an eight-point consensus. The two countries agreed to cut tariffs on about $30 billion of each other’s goods, set up a Trade Council to keep talks going, and will start a China–US dialogue on artificial intelligence, due to meet again in November. China invited 100,000 young Americans to visit over five years. And a panda pair, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, arrived at Zoo Atlanta on Sunday, 27 September.
He has great interest in granite. He’s an expert on stone, aside from many other things – and he loves good granite.
Not everything fitted the script. US Ambassador David Perdue said Trump had asked Xi about buying American weapons. The State Department pointed out that US law prohibits arms sales to China.
The next meetings are already booked: APEC in Shenzhen in November and the G20 in Miami in December.