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U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House on Thursday for a State Dinner in their honor.
The dinner is held following a closed-door meeting the two leaders held in the morning in the Oval Office to address tensions between the world's two largest powers, including tariffs, the war in Iran, the future of Taiwan, and artificial intelligence.
Upon the Chinese leader's arrival, dozens of protesters gathered in front of the White House with signs and slogans such as "Xi Jinping, you are not welcome" and "Free Tibet."
Xi and his wife arrived in a Chinese presidential Hongqi N701 limousine. The leader wore a formal dark gray Mao-style jacket, while Peng Liyuan wore a burgundy red dress that combined elements of Chinese tradition with simple lines, a style she has chosen in other official appearances abroad.
The menu, which fuses the culinary traditions of both nations, consists of a first course of vegetables, a sesame-crusted sea bass with roasted eggplant in a green sauce, and a dessert of vanilla cream and honey ice cream from the White House hives.
Among the guests at the dinner, which is being held in the White House East Room, are several U.S. business leaders, such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, Nvidia's Sam Altman, and OpenAI's Sam Altman.
Unlike the trip Trump took to Beijing in May, Xi did not travel to Washington accompanied by a delegation of business executives.
The dinner will begin with a toast of Schramsberg Blanc De Noirs, a California sparkling wine from the same winery that produced the wine President Richard Nixon and Premier Zhou Enlai toasted with in 1972 during the first trip by a U.S. leader to China.
Although Trump is a teetotaler, the U.S. president took a sip from a glass as a gesture of courtesy during the banquet Xi hosted last May for his visit to Beijing.
Several performances are scheduled for the gala dinner, most notably by tenor Christopher Macchio, one of Trump's favorite singers, who also performed at his presidential inauguration in January 2025.
There will also be performances by military musicians from the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army.
Xi's visit is his first State visit to the White House since 2015, when he met there with then-President Barack Obama.
This is the second face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi so far this year, following the trip the Republican made to Beijing last May.
[Publicidad]