"President Xi Jinping Holds Talks with U.S. President Donald J. Trump" is the English-language readout published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China of the talks between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump held at the White House on the morning of September 24, 2026, local time, during Xi's state visit to the United States. The page is dated September 25, 2026 (updated 07:50) and appears under the ministry's Top Stories; a Chinese-language original is published separately. It is the Chinese government's account of the meeting. Statements it attributes to Trump are the ministry's rendering of them, and no U.S. readout of the same meeting is held alongside it.
Summary
The readout is organized as a sequence of statements by each president, followed by a short list of other topics and attendees.
Bilateral framing
The ministry reports Xi as saying that the two presidents exchanging visits "in less than half a year is unprecedented in the history of China-U.S. relations," and that in May 2026 he and Trump "agreed to build a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability." Xi is recorded as calling on both sides to turn that vision into action and to "take their relationship where cooperation is the mainstay, competition is kept within proper limits, differences are managed and peace can be expected."
Economic and trade arrangement
According to the readout, Xi said the economic and trade teams of the two sides had held "a new round of consultations, and reached a new joint arrangement." He is recorded as saying that "the list of cooperation needs to be lengthened, and the list of issues shortened." The readout does not state the content of the arrangement.
Artificial intelligence
The AI passage attributed to Xi reads in full:
President Xi pointed out that both China and the United States have strong AI capabilities. They may have competition, but they may cooperate even more. The right thing to do is to draw on each other's strengths, not guard against each other. The two sides can continue their dialogue on AI, exchange views on its risks and benefits, and jointly prevent the misuse and abuse of AI. AI must be kept under human control. A people-centered approach should be upheld, and AI should be developed for the positive and for good, so that AI will serve the progress of humanity.
The readout attributes to Trump, within a longer paragraph, the statements: "AI concerns the future of humanity. The United States and China should maintain dialogue and strengthen cooperation on AI."
What the passage states and does not state:
- It refers to continuing an existing "dialogue on AI" and to exchanging views on AI's "risks and benefits." It does not name a forum, a lead official, a meeting date or a venue.
- It calls for the two sides to "jointly prevent the misuse and abuse of AI" without specifying which misuse, by whom, or through what mechanism.
- It does not mention an incident-notification system, a hotline or a communications channel for AI incidents, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had described after the September 20, 2026 talks in New York (see US-China AI Competition: Different Races, Different Metrics).
- It does not mention export controls, semiconductors, open-weight models, military AI or nuclear command and control.
- It does not describe any signed AI agreement or joint statement on AI.
Taiwan
Xi is recorded as saying that China's position on "safeguarding national reunification and territorial integrity is clear-cut," and as expressing the hope that the United States will "adhere to the correct position of opposing 'Taiwan independence,'" and "handle the Taiwan question with caution."
Trump's statements as rendered by the ministry
Besides the AI remarks, the readout records Trump as calling the state visit "a great visit," describing Xi and himself as "good friends," saying that the new round of trade consultations "has produced new outcomes," and saying the two sides "should continue the dialogue and reach an even better deal."
Other topics and attendees
The two presidents are reported to have exchanged views on the Middle East, "the Ukraine crisis" and the Korean Peninsula, and to have agreed to support each other in hosting the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the G20 Summit. Cai Qi, Wang Yi and He Lifeng are listed "among others" as attending.
Relation to earlier Chinese statements
The AI paragraph repeats phrasing from Xi's earlier 2026 addresses. His July 2026 World AI Conference keynote called for ensuring "that AI is always under human control" (Joining Hands to Build a Just and Equitable System For Global AI Governance (Xi Jinping, WAIC keynote, July 2026)); his September 13, 2026 BRICS statement asked Global South countries to "take a people-centered approach, develop AI for the positive and for good" (Xi Jinping, statement at Session II of the 18th BRICS Summit (New Delhi, September 2026)). The "constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability" is the formula from the May 2026 Beijing summit that Fudan University's Tianjiao Jiang cites as the basis for his military-AI proposals (Advancing human control of military AI (Sisson and Jiang, Brookings, September 2026)).
Reception
Axios reported that Trump entered the AI discussions "showing little interest" in doing much and that the Washington meetings ended without major breakthroughs (Source: axios.com). The readout's silence on the incident-notification mechanism is consistent with earlier reporting that Chinese officials had not publicly agreed to it and that China's Foreign Ministry did not answer a question on AI at its September 22 press conference (Source: politico.com).
Provenance
Captured on September 25, 2026 from the ministry's English site with page navigation removed and body text unedited; the capture notes that the source omits spaces after two commas. The capture records parallel Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian versions linked from the page and contemporaneous Reuters and Axios coverage of the Trump–Xi AI discussion as corroboration. The Chinese original is at fmprc.gov.cn.
Relationships
- supports: US-China AI Competition: Different Races, Different Metrics — Chinese account of the September 24, 2026 summit
- related: Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, He Lifeng, Scott Bessent
- depends-on: Joining Hands to Build a Just and Equitable System For Global AI Governance (Xi Jinping, WAIC keynote, July 2026) — source of the "under human control" formulation
- related: Xi Jinping, statement at Session II of the 18th BRICS Summit (New Delhi, September 2026) — "people-centered" and "for good" language
- related: Advancing human control of military AI (Sisson and Jiang, Brookings, September 2026) — Track II proposals published ahead of the summit
- related: Chinese AI Policy, AI Incident Reporting, Human Oversight