A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
China's leader, Xi Jinping, and President Trump are meeting at the White House this hour. They have a lot to discuss. China has been a big supporter of Iran, and there's growing competition over artificial intelligence development. In a moment, we'll speak with a former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Beijing. First, though, we begin with the news.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
NPR White House correspondent Emily Feng is following this Chinese state visit closely and joins me now. Good morning.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Morning, Leila.
FADEL: So what's on the schedule for this summit, and what details are you looking for?
FENG: I am curious about who is going to be at this state dinner tonight because this meeting is all about symbolism. And so I kind of can't wait to see how Xi Jinping, who is infamously stone-faced, responds to all this pageantry that he's going to be honored with this morning, and also whether Trump makes any change to the U.S. stance on Taiwan. This is a democratic island that China very much wants control over. And I'm also going to be looking out for whether the two countries can extend a fragile detente despite real friction over issues like export controls and sanctions.
And I'll note that hours before the summit, the U.S. Treasury secretary announced a two-month extension of a truce on rare earths, which is something China dominates. But so far, I haven't seen China confirm the details. China really forced the U.S. hand with rare earths, according to Scott Kennedy. He's an economics expert at the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies here in Washington.
SCOTT KENNEDY: As a result of that, the administration had to give up Plan A to revolutionize the global economy in its - to its preference because it just has the reality that we are in an interdependent world, and there are some things that the Chinese provide.
FENG: You know, that they provide which the U.S. cannot substitute for, like rare earths.
FADEL: Now, Xi arrived in the U.S. last night. Trump met him on the tarmac. What was that like?
FENG: Yeah. There was a welcoming delegation. They unfurled a long red carpet for Xi Jinping and his wife, the singer Peng Liyuan. A band played both countries' anthems, and then a military fly-by buzzed overhead during the last bars of "The Star-Spangled Banner." This is a really big deal. You know, this is the first time a U.S. president has received a visiting Chinese leader for a state visit on the tarmac, and it's a sign of just the personal importance that Trump puts on Xi's visit. It's a grand gesture that's made waves in China because it makes clear to people in China that this country is now an equal to the U.S.
And you might be wondering why you're not hearing parts of this reception. It's because this moment was not broadcast on major TV networks as part of a protest for Trump banning three major news organizations from the White House.
FADEL: Now, you've explained just how important this visit is to Trump. Does it carry the same importance to China?
FENG: It's big news in China, but for Xi Jinping, this is actually just one of several state visits he's made over the last month. He's gone to Egypt and Central Asia as well. Xi's priority, experts say to me, is to find stability with the U.S. in this visit, even if it means basically papering over real tensions with the U.S. right now, which then bounces back. It raises the question of, you know, what does this visit do for the U.S.? It highlights what Ely Ratner, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense during the last administration, says to me are deep contradictions in Trump's China policy. You know, Ratner points out, in his first term, Trump really swung U.S. foreign policy into a more aggressive, hawkish stance on China.
ELY RATNER: But by and large, they had made a major rhetorical shift and doctrinal shift without really putting in the pieces of a comprehensive competitive strategy.
FENG: An example of this contradiction - Trump has repeatedly praised Xi Jinping, who is the leader of a country that's a competitor with the U.S. But then he has criticized traditional U.S. allies like Canada and Taiwan.
FADEL: That's NPR's Emily Feng. Emily, thank you.
FENG: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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