US, China Extend Trade Truce Two Months as Xi Visits — SkimNews
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- Xi Jinping landed in Washington for his first US state visit in a decade, welcomed by Trump at Joint Base Andrews with a red carpet and military flyover — a greeting the article notes Trump reserves for few visiting leaders.
- Xi Jinping called for the two countries to be "partners rather than rivals," saying their interests are "deeply intertwined," in a written statement carried by Xinhua ahead of Thursday's main meeting.
- Scott Bessent announced the US and China have agreed to extend the Busan Agreement trade truce by two months past its November 10 deadline, telling Fox News the extension "buys both sides more time to negotiate."
- Donald Trump publicly called for the release of Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old Hong Kong democracy advocate sentenced earlier this year to 20 years in prison under China's 2020 National Security Law.
- Jimmy Lai's case was also raised by Andy Burnham, who asked Trump to press Xi on the release of Lai — a British citizen — ahead of the summit, per Politico.
- The Thursday state dinner will be attended by top US tech executives, with trade, AI, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Iran on the agenda; the article notes Trump is expected to maintain firm US export controls despite Xi's objections.
Why it matters: The two-month trade truce extension pushes the November 10 deadline to January 2 and removes one immediate cliff for negotiators, while Trump's public call for Jimmy Lai's freedom — at a red-carpet reception for Xi — puts human rights on a summit agenda otherwise dominated by AI and export controls. With tech CEOs at the state dinner, the visit's deliverables will likely be measured in AI and chip-policy terms as much as trade.
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