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China’s president Xi Jinping was wrapping up his much-anticipated state visit to the United States on Friday, with details of his talks with US president Donald Trump still to emerge on the thorny issues that define what Xi called as the “healthy competition” between the two global powers.
The two leaders met behind closed doors for 90 minutes on Thursday, when they discussed issues such as the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula, according to the official Chinese government readout of the meeting. The White House has not provided any information about the private talks, or if there were any major breakthroughs on issues such as trade or the safety of artificial intelligence which the two leaders identified as key points of their talks.
The US and Chinese presidents chose to show that they were working to preserve harmony between the world’s two largest economies.
In a visit full of pomp, Trump took Xi to visit the National Archives on Friday where the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are held. Trump said Thursday that he wanted to show Xi “some of the greatest treasures of that proud history.”
The US president also said he wanted to show Xi artifacts about the relationship between the two countries, saying that “just as our ancestors reached across the ocean centuries ago to trade, to learn, and to build a better world, our two countries do really the same thing, and we’re very proud of it.”
On Thursday evening, the US president and the First Lady feted China’s leader and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with a black-tie state dinner attended by technology industry titans and top business leaders from the US, but less from China.
“President Xi and I both understand we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said during his toast, adding that “together, we can continue to build a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations.”
In his toast, Xi said that “President Trump has pledged to make America great again” and that “China is committed to achieving great national rejuvenation.”
Those in attendance included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Dell Technologies chairman and CEO Michael Dell, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
Bernard Arnault, the CEO of French luxury goods company LVMH, was also invited to the state dinner.
The president presented Xi with an eagle statue that he said was designed “in personal collaboration with Melania and myself.”
The first lady helped craft the evening’s menu featuring sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant as main course.