President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan at a state dinner in the White House East Room, bringing together senior officials and some of America’s biggest business leaders.
The black-tie event was intended to provide a high-profile setting for diplomacy between the two countries, with guests including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Michael Dell, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Jane Fraser and Tim Cook.
Mr and Mrs Trump greeted the Chinese couple at the North Portico before posing for a group photograph and entering the White House for the dinner.
The evening’s arrangements were overseen by the first lady’s office. The East Room was decorated with red linens, Reagan-era vermeil and urns filled with crimson dahlias.
Mrs Trump said the design “draws on the color red’s longstanding cultural significance throughout Chinese history”.
Military musicians and inauguration tenor Christopher Macchio were due to perform during the dinner, while guests raised glasses of Schramsberg Blanc de Noir in a symbolic toast.
The toast was intended to recall the “Toast to Peace” shared by Richard Nixon and Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in China in 1972.
White House chefs prepared a menu combining American ingredients with Asian influences. It included yellow squash velouté with crispy pancetta, sesame-crusted sea bass with braised baby bok choy, and a fruit-shaped vanilla cremeux served with ice cream made from White House honey.
The dinner was held in the East Room after the unfinished White House ballroom forced the administration to move the diplomatic gathering elsewhere.
Xi Jinping welcomed with military pomp
The state dinner followed a formal welcome for Mr Xi, whose three-day visit began with a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews featuring soldiers, F-35 fighter jets and a US Air Force flyover.
The Trumps personally greeted the Chinese delegation on the tarmac, in a break with more than a decade of presidential protocol. The flyover reportedly left Mr Trump wincing, while Mr Xi remained impassive.
Mr Xi also announced that China would send two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, to Zoo Atlanta within days, continuing the tradition of panda diplomacy associated with Mr Nixon’s 1972 visit.
The visit includes cultural events as well as negotiations on trade and disputes involving technology and Tehran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two leaders could meet as many as four times before the end of the year.
On Friday, Mr and Mrs Trump, Mr Xi and Madame Peng are due to visit the National Archives to view the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
