President Donald Trump has confirmed that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Washington on September 24 for a state visit, during which artificial intelligence will be a significant topic of discussion. The visit was first proposed in May when Trump formally invited Xi during his own state visit to Beijing. Trump extended the invitation during a lavish banquet at the Great Hall of the People, where he hailed the ‘special relationship’ between the United States and China and said he had ‘extremely positive and productive talks’ with Xi.
The president called the burgeoning AI sector ‘the biggest thing anybody’s ever seen’ and claimed the U.S. is ‘leading China’ in the race to develop Artificial Generalized Intelligence. Trump expressed his desire to maintain the U.S. lead in AI development, stating, ‘We want to keep it that way. President Xi is coming over on September 24th, and we talked about it when I was over in Beijing, and we’ll be talking about it again.’
Xi’s September trip to Washington will mark his first visit to the White House in over a decade, following a state visit hosted by then-president Barack Obama almost exactly 11 years ago. The state visit will include a welcome ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn, which is currently undergoing repairs after hosting an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in June. The White House is also working to complete construction on a helipad for new presidential transport helicopters, which have been in testing for nearly a decade.
The helipad project is being funded by Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the VH-92 Patriot helicopters. The new helicopters have not been used to transport the president to or from the White House due to their engines’ tendency to burn the grass they land on. Xi’s visit will make him the second world leader Trump has hosted for a state visit this year, following King Charles III’s visit to Washington last month.
