Donald Trump met Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday as the Chinese president began a three-day state visit. Al Jazeera and The Guardian both describe a personal greeting at the aircraft rather than a first handshake at the White House. The ceremony included a red carpet, national anthems and a gun salute, with first ladies Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan present. The visit's formal White House welcome is set for Thursday.
Geopolitics··Morning
A greeting at the aircraft
United States President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday, 23 September, as Xi began a three-day visit. Al Jazeera reported that Trump took the unusual step of meeting the visiting leader at the airfield rather than waiting for a White House arrival, and that the two men walked side by side with US soldiers before a gun salute and the American anthem. The Guardian described the same Wednesday-evening meeting at the aircraft as an unusually generous opening to a state visit, and quoted First Lady Melania Trump telling Fox and Friends that morning that Xi was arriving on American soil and should be received with the greatest respect. Peng Liyuan, Xi's wife, was on the aircraft, Al Jazeera reported, and both first ladies took part in the handshake on the carpet.[1], [2]
What the ceremony contained
Al Jazeera's account of the late-Wednesday ceremony lists a red carpet, both national anthems and a gun salute. It calls the airport meeting the first time in recent memory that a US president has greeted a foreign leader this way, and it places the arrival as the first US state visit by a Chinese leader in more than a decade. A formal White House welcome and a state dinner are scheduled for Thursday, the same report says. The Guardian's emphasis is the choice of place: greeting Xi at the plane, rather than at the White House, is the gesture that shows how far Trump is willing to go to indulge the Chinese president. The two accounts agree on the people, the airfield and the day. They differ in what they treat as the point of the scene, the protocol list on one side and the political generosity of the location on the other.[1], [2]
A visit that starts before the White House
Both newsrooms say Trump personally met Xi at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday evening at the start of the state visit, with the first ladies present, and that the meeting happened at the aircraft. Al Jazeera adds the sequence after the handshake: the walk between soldiers, the salute and the anthem, then Thursday's White House programme. The Guardian adds the first lady's morning explanation that the visit should be met with maximum respect because it is on American soil, and it reads the tarmac itself as the indulgence. The development the two reports establish together is the greeting, who gave it, and where.[1], [2]
