United States (US) President Donald Trump called China\u2019s Xi Jinping a great leader and a friend as they kicked off two days of talks this Thursday set to cover their \u200bfragile trade truce, the Iran war and US arms sales to Taiwan.<\/p>\n
With his approval ratings dented by his entanglement in the Middle East, Trump\u2019s hotly anticipated trip to China , the first by a \u200cUS president to America\u2019s main strategic rival since his last visit there in 2017\u00a0 has taken on added significance.<\/p>\n
Joining him on the trip are a group of Chief Executive Officers looking to resolve issues with China, including Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a late addition. Trump has said his first request to Xi will be to \u201copen up\u201d China to US industry.<\/p>\n
The pomp-filled summit began at Beijing\u2019s imposing Great Hall of the People, where Xi greeted Trump on the red carpet, with the leaders shaking hands and smiling warmly.<\/p>\n
Chinese troops goose-stepped \u200bto revolutionary anthems in front of the visiting Trump, while schoolchildren waving American and Chinese flags cheered as the two leaders strolled past, Trump occasionally patting Xi on the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a great leader. Sometimes, \u200bpeople don\u2019t like me saying it, but I say it anyway,\u201d Trump told Xi as they sat across from each other, flanked by their delegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are those who say \u2060this may be the biggest summit ever. It\u2019s an honour to be with you. It\u2019s an honour to be your friend and the relationship between China and the US is going to be better than ever before,\u201d \u200bTrump said.<\/p>\n
Xi told Trump: \u201cEach country\u2019s success represents an opportunity for the other, and a stable China\u2013US relationship benefits the entire world. When we cooperate, both sides benefit; when we confront each other, both sides suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14073,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-34471","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Chinese troops goose-stepped \u200bto revolutionary anthems in front of the visiting Trump.","published_date":"","news_description":"Chinese troops goose-stepped \u200bto revolutionary anthems in front of the visiting Trump.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34476,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34471\/revisions\/34476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}