US to host President Xi for state visit later this week

President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United States this week. The White House releases details of the welcome he will receive which includes a military ceremony and state banquet.

President Xi Jinping is making his first state visit to the United States in 11 years. This will be the second meeting between the two leaders since US President Donald Trump visited China in May of this year.

US First Lady Melania Trump's office released the reception arrangements indicating Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan will receive the highest protocol, starting at their arrival when the US president will travel to Joint Air Force Base Andrews in Maryland to greet him on the tarmac.

China's president and his wife are among the few distinguished guests to receive a personal greeting from an American head of state, a rare occurrence and the first time since the establishment of diplomatic relations the US and China.

The meeting between the two leaders also comes after the two countries climbed down from last year's intense trade war, when they traded tit-for-tat sky-high tariffs that threatened the global economy.

Da Wei, Director of the Center for International Security and Strategy, Tsinghua University said "I think the bilateral relations are kind of relatively stable. Of course some bad news still happens, some frictions between the two sides, but the overall stability remains. So I think we are at a moment that we need more meat on the bone. I'm a little bit concerned that after the May Summit I think we have moved too slowly, the two sides. We should not squander time. The clock is ticking so we need to move fast."

This comes as the world's two largest economies continue to compete over trade and technology. Developing AI technology has emerged as a key battleground with both sides showing little interest in slowing down despite warnings from tech CEOs about threats that rogue AI could pose to humanity.

"Whoever wins AI wins," Trump has repeatedly said. Neither side expects any grand bargains but the leaders are expected to play nice in their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House to try to steady fragile ties.