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WASHINGTON: The US military honor guard has been rehearsing and the new White House helipad is ready. But will Xi Jinping and Donald Trump achieve lift-off at their summit next week?<\/strong><\/p>\n Warnings of an AI apocalypse hang heavy over the Chinese president\u2019s first White House meetings with Trump, as both countries race for technological supremacy.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Iran war casts a long shadow too, as China seeks to avoid US sanctions against countries dealing with Tehran, despite reports that Beijing supplied Tehran with intelligence for a strike on US troops.<\/p>\n A simmering trade war between the world\u2019s two largest economies is of even greater concern, while the threat of military confrontation over Taiwan looms large as well.<\/p>\n Behind it all is a desire to manage tensions between a superpower keen to keep its place at the top and a rapidly rising rival determined to make the 21st century a Chinese one.<\/p>\n The US president, media-minded as ever, is also focused on the optics of the visit, having been hosted with high pomp during his own state visit to China in May.<\/p>\n Trump, who was welcomed by China\u2019s vice president when he landed in Beijing, will personally welcome Xi at Joint Base Andrews next Wednesday before their meetings the following day, a US official confirmed.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be discussing almost everything with him,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.<\/p>\n But the two leaders are more likely to simply extend a relative truce rather than produce any concrete results, experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t expect much to come out of this,\u201d Jonathan Czin of the Brookings Institution told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways, this is going to be a recapitulation of Trump\u2019s visit to Beijing back in May, where the focus was really on the ostensible rapport between the two leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n With fears about AI making global headlines, agreement to cooperate on regulation or a slowdown is expected to be a key topic of discussion.<\/p>\n But any major deals are \u201cpolitically out of reach for now,\u201d said Wang Dong, a professor at Peking University, as Beijing and Washington both fear losing out in the race for AI dominance.<\/p>\n Tensions over Iran will also come up. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to meet his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng this weekend for pre-summit talks including on Iran sanctions.<\/p>\n Trump has, however, played down reports that Chinese entities supplied Iran with satellite imagery for an attack on a US military base in Jordan, saying Xi had \u201cbehaved reasonably well\u201d and that \u201cwe spy on them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n On trade,\u00a0there is \u201croom for progress on tariffs, agricultural purchases and selected export controls,\u201d Yue Su of The Economist Intelligence Unit told AFP.<\/p>\n The son of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai made an appeal to President Xi from Washington that his 78-year-old father be released.<\/p>\n Trump said in May that he had discussed Lai\u2019s fate with Xi, but his release was unlikely.<\/p>\n But Beijing did release the founder of an underground church, Ezra Jin, after Trump raised his case with Xi.<\/p>\n As so often before, Trump has appeared more interested in the pageantry surrounding the talks than with the substance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is less a summit and more a spectacle. This is designed for deep public consumption,\u201d said Kurt Campbell, former US Deputy Secretary of State and now Chairman of The Asia Group.<\/p>\n Trump pushed for a new granite helicopter landing pad on the White House South Lawn to be open in time for Xi\u2019s visit, which will include a grand state dinner.<\/p>\n Troops in pristine uniforms have been rehearsing on the White House driveway this week ahead of the welcome ceremony.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s only disappointment is that his under-construction $400 million ballroom won\u2019t be ready \u2014 though he has said that when finished it will \u201ctop\u201d Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People, where Xi hosted him in May.<\/p>\n During the Beijing trip, Trump showered praise on Xi, only for the Chinese leader to warn about possible \u201cconflict\u201d over Taiwan.<\/p>\n Fears of a Chinese invasion of the self-governing island and global semiconductor hub \u2014 which Beijing claims as its territory \u2014 remain the most sensitive topic between Washington and Beijing, said Peking University\u2019s Wang.<\/p>\n One possible concrete deliverable is an announcement of further summits.<\/p>\n Trump and Xi are expected to meet in November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzhen, China. The Kremlin has suggested a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n Trump is meanwhile expected to invite Xi to the G20 summit in December at his Doral resort in Miami.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Don\u2019t expect much\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Spectacle\u2019<\/h2>\n