Xi visit to Washington all pomp but little progress so far

“The decisions we make in these areas today can promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come,” he said.

The marching bands and military flyovers on Thursday may serve a larger purpose, however – at least for Trump.

“This is a little bit of intentional pageantry to talk up the positive vibes of the summit,” Jennifer Welch, chief economic analyst for Bloomberg Economics, told the BBC. “This is very much how President Trump sees the summit and the role he plays in the US-China relationship, as ballast to provide stability.”

Even so, there is still an edge to some of Xi’s rhetoric, she notes.

In remarks at the White House, the Chinese leader again mentioned the “Thucydides trap” – a theory that shifts in global power tend to lead to conflict between rising and declining nations.

“China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialogue, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust,” Xi said.

The obstacles in the way of reaching any substantive agreement between the two nations are significant, however. When Trump and Xi met in Beijing in May, the men agreed to form boards of trade and investment to oversee economic interactions, and little more.

On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a year-long trade “truce” between the two nations that had kept tariffs lower would be extended another two months. Financial analysts expect a further extension could come before this week’s summit ends, given that neither side wants a renewal of last year’s trade war.

The outlook for progress is much dimmer on other topics, like the US war with Iran, the Ukraine war and regulating AI.

China’s reneging on promises to buy more American agricultural products and to also sell more rare earth minerals to the US is helping cloud the outlook. China, meanwhile, is watching to see if Trump follows through on a proposed sale of American weapons to Taiwan, which has been on hold for months.