Trump and Xi Jinping head into Washington summit with both leaders thinking time is on their side

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for talks on Thursday at the White House. terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips.

And the two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend a one-year trade truce set to expire Nov. 10 for two months, kicking the can on finding a more durable agreement.All the while, both leaders seem to believe that time is on their side as they look to outmaneuver the other in what is expected to be the world's most significant economic and national security competition for years to come.“The president very much believes that over time the U.S. will keep making advances in AI and on technology, and that ...

will develop alternative sources of critical minerals and rare earths,” said Edgard Kagan, a former senior State Department official handling East Asia policy issues under Trump and President Joe Biden. “I think when Xi Jinping sits down with Donald Trump, he very much believes the U.S. is in hurtling decline and that time is on China’s side.”Trump, for his part, is going all in on the pomp for the state visit for Xi.In a grand gesture, the Republican leader kicked off the visit by showing up to greet Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, upon their arrival on Wednesday evening just outside Washington.Trump has made clear he wants to impress Xi with the visit, making sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House's South Lawn was completed ahead of the visit.

He's also openly lamented that his planned White House ballroom isn't ready for a fancy state dinner in Xi's honor on Thursday evening.The guest list includes Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, among other tech titans staking out positions on whether more safeguards are needed in the race to develop artificial intelligence — an issue of critical importance to both leaders.US and China still have work to do on trade truceTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two leaders may be open to a new “notification mechanism” for A…