AdvertisementWorldThe US secured an extension of its trade truce this week - but only a short one.US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping walk along the Colonnade of the White House, on Sep 24, 2026, in Washington. (Photo: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)25 Sep 2026 08:14AM (Updated: 25 Sep 2026 08:31AM) Bookmark Bookmark WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedInAdd CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results.Read a summary of this article on FAST.Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try.Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FASTFAST WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday (Sep 24), with talks on trade and artificial intelligence and the growing strategic rivalry between the countries all in the spotlight during an elaborate state visit.Here are some major takeaways from the talks:TRADE DEAL EXTENDED, FOR NOWThe US secured an extension of its trade truce this week - but only a short one.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides agreed to extend by two months a trade agreement that ended last year's trade war and was due to expire in November. The extension would give Washington and Beijing "more time to see what we can do on the economic front," he said.Show MoreShow LessBut rather than locking in a durable agreement, the extension appears to push the central questions — tariffs, Chinese purchases, rare-earth supplies and technology restrictions — into the next round of negotiations.Bessent said on Wednesday that Beijing was meeting its requirement in the earlier agreement to buy 25 million tons of soybeans but was lagging on its pledge to buy US$17 billion in other agricultural goods. US officials have said rare-earth deliveries were also falling short, another sign that significant gaps remain.For companies, the result is a familiar form of instability: tariff rates remain lower for now, but decisions must still be made against a shifting policy backdrop.Trump's state dinner for Xi features sea bass and a long list of tech titansTrump-Xi summit in Washington begins with great fanfare but low expectationsDRESS TO IMPRESSFor Trump, Xi's White House visit was an opportunity to show off a Washington being remade in his image.After Xi treated Trump in Beijing to a tour around a Ming dynasty temple and a walled-off garden retreat rarely opened to foreigners, the US president returned the favor with a different kind of spectacle: Troops wearing wigs and tri-corner hats marched in formation and played music in a Rose Garden redesigned to look like a Trump golf club.Fighter jets and bombers roared overhead during ceremonies staged on Wednesday and Thursday, one so loud it caused Trump to flinch.When the White House press corps was called to cover the two leaders, it wasn’t to hear them talk about the weighty affairs of state. Instead, it was to watch them tour the Marine One helicopter and the recently redesigned South Lawn of the White House, replete with a large helipad emblazoned with the presidential seal.Speaking to reporters, Trump brushed away questions about their policy discussions.“He loves good granite,” Trump said of Xi. “Great meeting.”XI WANTS US "PRUDENCE" OVER TAIWANAs expected, Xi pressed Trump on the Taiwan issue, saying, according to China's official news agency, that China hoped the United States would "handle the Taiwan question with prudence."The agency's English-language service also wrote that Xi hoped the US would oppose Taiwan independence.That would be a tougher version of Washington's long-standing formulation that it does not "support" independence. There are no signs that the Trump administration plans to change its wording.There was no immediate White House readout of the exchange, but US officials have long avoided explicitly stating opposition to Taiwanese independence. Any shift in language would raise questions about Washington's resolve to defend the island and provoke opposition in Congress.Trump-Xi summit: Xi Jinping calls for US and China to be partners rather than rivalsTrump’s high-level welcome for Xi puts personal diplomacy in focus, analysts saySTRATEGIC RISKXi, not for the first time while meeting Trump, invoked the "Thucydides Trap", an academic theory that competition between a rising power and an established one tends toward war.While the Chinese leader said the risk "can be overcome," his reference underscored how concerns about a potential US-China military conflict continue to shadow relations between the world's two largest powers.Xi argued that both nations stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, and he called for regular military dialogue and stronger crisis-prevention mechanisms.Trump, for his part, drew on the two nations' shared history to emphasize the potential for cooperation. They could accomplish much by pursuing common interests, he said, invoking their wartime alliance against Japan.DIFFERENCES ON AIThe two leaders expressed diverging views about artificial intelligence.Trump, who has declared that AI should be called super intelligence, or SI, said in a social media post that he wants “to leave it exactly where it is" and rely on the US Department of Justice rather than impose any new guardrails. He insisted that China held the same position.But Xi said on Thursday that, as leading nations on AI, China and the US must manage its growth.“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people,” Xi said.Some of the biggest names in AI were expected to attend Trump's state dinner at the White House on Thursday for Xi, including Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Sundar Pichai, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Nvidia's (NVDA.O) Jensen Huang.Source: Reuters/bgSign up for our newslettersGet our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inboxSubscribe hereGet the CNA appStay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best storiesDownload hereGet WhatsApp alertsJoin our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat appJoin hereAlso worth readingContent is loading...