US President Donald Trump has officially announced that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will make a state visit to the United States on September 24, 2026.
The news was announced on the afternoon of July 23 during a speech by Trump at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he discussed the administration's plans to build new data centers. According to the American head of state, the leading topic of the bilateral talks in Washington will be the development and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), world news agencies report.
According to Reuters, Trump has stressed the strategic importance of the meeting, saying: “President Xi is coming on September 24th. We talked about it when I was in Beijing, and we will discuss it again.“ The American leader described AI as “the greatest thing that anyone has ever seen“ and categorically stated that the United States must maintain its leading position over China in the technological race.
The visit of the Chinese president is the second major summit between the two superpowers this year. In May 2026, Donald Trump made a historic visit to China, accompanied by a large business delegation from the technology sector, during which he extended a personal invitation to Xi Jinping to visit the White House. As Fox News notes, the upcoming fall visit also coincides with the UN General Assembly in New York.
Preparations for the highest-level diplomatic event are already underway. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a working meeting aimed at identifying key areas of cooperation and avoiding potential trade and political conflicts. Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is expected to lead a dedicated intergovernmental dialogue on AI models ahead of the visit in late September.
Tariff escalation and tech war: The economic backdrop to the meeting
The upcoming summit comes amid unprecedented economic tensions. The Trump administration has imposed an aggressive tariff policy that includes a universal base tariff of 10% on global imports and combined levies reaching 104% on certain Chinese goods. According to analysis by BBC, the White House is using these trade barriers as a tool to stimulate local production and narrow the trade deficit with Beijing. Adding to the tension was the Office of the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) proposal for new tariffs of 10% to 12.5% due to forced labor investigations affecting dozens of economies, including China.
Despite the harsh tone, diplomatic channels remain open for possible economic concessions. As reported by the economic publication South China Morning Post, during Trump's May visit to Beijing, the two countries announced the creation of joint trade and investment councils aimed at achieving mutual tariff relief on goods worth around $30 billion for each country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the activation of these councils is one of the potential concrete outcomes that Washington and Beijing are trying to finalize before Xi Jinping's visit in September.
The technology sector is the second major arena of conflict. US export restrictions on high-tech chips (such as those from Nvidia) have severely limited China's hardware access, which in turn forced Beijing to change its strategy. According to The New York Times, China has successfully caught up by developing highly effective AI models with open source (open-source), which require less computing power and undermine the market dominance of American technology giants. Additional conflict arose after accusations by the American company Anthropic that Chinese platforms were illegally copying their patented technologies through fictitious profiles. In response, Secretary Scott Besant threatened direct sanctions against Chinese AI companies, emphasizing that “open source does not mean open hunting for American intellectual property“.