President Donald Trump greeted President Xi Jinping of China at a lavish White House arrival ceremony Thursday morning, with the two leaders striking different tones in their opening remarks at a landmark U.S.-China summit that is likely to be full of pomp but unlikely to produce significant agreements.

Trump emphasized the “truly great friendship” between the two leaders after they and their spouses met on a red carpet outside the White House. Xi’s opening remarks were less personal: The Chinese leader thanked the Trumps for their hospitality before turning to matters of geopolitics, including Chinese companies’ access to the United States.

“The interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined,” Xi said. The two nations, he said, must avoid the “Thucydides trap” — the theory that a rising power and an established power are likely to go to war.

Xi also announced that his country would be sending two pandas to the Atlanta zoo in the coming days as he invoked Trump’s oft-used slogan: “Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.”

The White House visit, Xi’s first in more than a decade, opened with elaborate ceremonies involving hundreds of U.S. military personnel and a B-2 stealth bomber flyover. On Thursday evening, Trump is set to host a state dinner in Xi’s honor.

But expectations are low for breakthroughs in resolving any of the major tensions between the world’s two most powerful countries. Those include a shaky trade-war truce, the fate of Taiwan, a risky artificial intelligence race and China’s support for Iran and for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

In a sign of the incremental nature of the two countries’ negotiations, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said late Wednesday that the United States and China had agreed to extend a one-year trade truce by two months, to Jan. 10. It had been due to expire Nov. 10.

Nor do experts expect much headway on AI safety issues, despite American complaints about Chinese AI practices and even though some of America’s biggest tech titans have been invited to the dinner Thursday.

Xi, for his part, could take advantage of Trump’s efforts to maintain a good relationship by pressing him to continue delaying arms sales to Taiwan.

Here’s What Else to Know:

— Media access: No major U.S. TV network aired live footage of the initial meeting between the two leaders. A high-stakes summit would typically preempt regular programming, but the networks have declined to provide shared footage since Trump blocked CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. The administration had not acted on a judge’s order to restore access as of Thursday morning.

— First lady: Melania Trump is scheduled to take Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art after Thursday’s arrival ceremony. On Friday, the women will join their husbands for tea in the Red Room of the White House and for a tour of the National Archives.

— Americans detained: The families of two Americans listed by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained in China are urging Trump to press Xi for their release. They are Youlin Chen, a seismologist who was detained and accused of spying while visiting relatives in Beijing in 2024, and U Min Zin, a political scientist who was arrested in June while visiting southwest China to attend a conference at the invitation of the Chinese government.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, David E. Sanger and Anton Troianovski/Doug Mills
c. 2026 The New York Times Company