‘Never mess it up’: What Xi and Trump said on day one of Beijing talks

Xi and Trump agree to frame their relationship as ‘constructive, strategic and stable’ on the first day of talks in Beijing.

One day into United States President Donald Trump’s visit to China for trade talks, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged toasts at a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and hailed their relationship as the world’s most “consequential”.

On Thursday, following a visit to the Temple of Heaven, a 600-year-old landmark in the Chinese capital, Xi spoke of a “shared US-China future”, while also warning that failure to handle this bond would create a “very dangerous situation”.

“We must make it work and never mess it up,” he said.

Here’s a look at what each president has said about five key issues so far:

Their personal ties

The US president described his Chinese counterpart as “my friend” in his opening remarks at the state banquet that Xi hosted for the American leader.

“We are going to have a fantastic future together. I have such respect for China, for the job you’ve done. You are a great leader,” he told Xi.

Trump also invited Xi and First Lady Peng Liyuan to pay a return visit to the White House on September 24.

For his part, the Chinese president said he was “very happy” to meet Trump in Beijing at a time of historic turbulence and when the “world stands at a new crossroads”.

He then posed a series of questions to the US president.

“Can we join hands to address global challenges and inject greater stability into the world?” he asked.

“Can we uphold the wellbeing of our respective peoples and the shared future of humanity, working together to create a bright future for our bilateral relationship?”

“These are, in essence, questions posed by history, by the world, and by the people, and they constitute the answer to our times that you and I, as leaders of major nations, must jointly write,” he added.

“China is deeply invested in symbolism and visual optics, and it uses these details to convey the importance of a guest,” Yu said.

Trump was welcomed at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of power in China, “the equivalent of the White House and all other important centres of power combined”.

She added, “China is very aware that it wants to give Trump a spectacle. What we are seeing now is China rolling out the red carpet accordingly.”

Additionally, Vice President Han Zheng greeted Trump at the airport when he landed in Beijing on Wednesday, making him the highest-ranking Chinese official to ever welcome a US president.

Trump and Xi may meet again on at least two other occasions this year – the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November, and the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Miami, Florida, in the US in December.

It would be unprecedented for the US president to travel to China twice in one year.

Their countries’ ties

Xi and Trump agreed to frame their relationship as “constructive, strategic and stable” in a new positioning that is intended to guide US-China ties for the next three years and beyond, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement about the talks.

Trump said the relationship between the two countries went back to the founding of the US, noting that the early American traders who visited China were described by the Chinese as “the new people”.

Today, he said, the countries’ bilateral ties were among “the most consequential” in the world.

The Chinese president said the countries should become partners, rather than rivals, adding that “mutual respect is key to stable China-US ties”.

“I have always believed that the common interests between China and the US outweigh the differences,” Xi said.

“Let 2026 be a historic and landmark year for Sino-US relations to carry on the past and open up the future.”