Xi urges steady course for ties

President Xi Jinping has underlined the need for China and the US to strengthen communication, cooperate with sincerity and coexist in peace, saying that achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and "making America great again" can go hand in hand.

Xi, who is paying a state visit to the US, made the remarks on Thursday in Washington in a speech delivered at the welcoming ceremony hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House.

"I'm visiting the United States at the invitation of President Trump to carry on our friendship, expand cooperation and promote the well-being of both our peoples," he said in the speech.

Xi noted that his agreement with Trump, reached during the US president's visit to China in May, on building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability has been widely welcomed by the people of the two countries and the international community.

"China and the US are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialogue, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust," he said.

Xi pointed out that the interests of the two countries are deeply intertwined, and there is plenty of room for them to work together. "China-US cooperation may not solve every problem in the world, but without cooperation, it would be hard to solve many of the world's problems," he said.

Xi expressed the hope that Chinese companies will be treated fairly in the US, saying that "working together, we can lengthen the list of cooperation and shorten the list of issues".

Noting that both China and the US are leading nations in artificial intelligence, he said that both countries have the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and to ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people.

Xi reiterated that China and the US, as two major countries, stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation.

"We do not need to avoid mentioning competition, but our competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds. It should be a race of catching up with each other, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses," he said.

"China and the United States must hold the line of no conflict and no confrontation between us. And we can certainly find the right path for two great countries to get along on this planet."

He said that the two militaries should maintain regular dialogue and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention.

In his speech, Xi announced an invitation for 100,000 young Americans to visit China for exchanges and studies in the coming five years, and said two pandas will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people.

Addressing the ceremony, Trump said that from the time of his first election in 2016, he has forged a friendship with Xi, which he described as "a truly great friendship actually built on mutual respect and the vital interests of our people".

Planeside welcome

On Wednesday, President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were warmly greeted by President Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, in a rare planeside welcome at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, DC, as Xi began his first state visit to the US in 11 years.

American children presented bouquets of flowers to Xi and Peng upon their arrival. Honor guards lined both sides of the red carpet in salute. The welcoming ceremony also included a 21-gun salute, the playing of the national anthems of both countries, and a military flyover.

The gesture was notable even by broader diplomatic standards, and the arrangement was described by US media as a "rare" and "unusual" departure from protocol, as US presidents typically receive visiting foreign leaders at the White House rather than greeting them at the airport.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a US scholar and longtime observer of China, emphasized the message conveyed by the summit itself.

"The meeting itself is the biggest announcement: Both leaders are committed to a stable relationship," Kuhn said. "It's a dangerously different world in which we're living. This is especially why stable US-China relations are critical: to keep the world from getting any worse."

A more stable relationship would also benefit the US economy, in which private businesses are particularly sensitive to instability and uncertainty, he added.

He also called for practical China-US cooperation in areas including combating drug trafficking and addressing artificial intelligence risks.

Suisheng Zhao, a professor and director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, said he expected the immediate focus to be on limited agreements on specific issues, including a trade-war truce, rare earth export controls and agricultural trade.