President Xi Jinping’s US Visit: The Unreported Positives – OpEd

Key Takeaways:

• The author highlights a Trump–Xi state dinner attended by tech and finance chiefs (Huang, Musk, Altman, Cook, Dimon, Fink, Fraser, Solomon, Yass): Trump spoke of never getting along better and a toast to “harmony, peace and success”; Xi said MAGA and China’s rejuvenation need not be zero-sum and warned against a Thucydides trap while urging joint AI risk control.
• Business presence is read as a signal to protect supply chains and investment even as trade and tech disputes remain; the piece treats that as assumption, not quoted boardroom replies.
• It blames “wolf warrior” Western coverage (NYT, BBC named) for framing the visit as threat and trapping policy into conflict, and wants the warmer tone to outlast this U.S. administration.

The highlight of President Xi Jinping’s​ visit to the United States was the state dinner in his honour. What stood out on that occasion was not only the star studded galaxy of private sector and business titans in attendance but also the fact that they, and an audience around the world, were treated to much more than the usual diplomatic rhetoric that accompanies such events.

Top American technology and financial executives attending included Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Apple’s Tim Cook, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, Black Rock’s Larry Fink, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and Susquehanna International Group’s (noted TikTok investor) Jeff Yass. They listened to two unusual speeches that provide positive indicators for US-China bilateral relations as well as the emerging new world order.

Reaffirming A Consequential and Stable Relationship

President Trump in his welcome praised the United States’ relationship with China, remarking that he and President Xi Jinping had “never gotten along better”. The speech also struck a notably warm tone about US-China relations. He framed the two nations through their deep heritages, citing China’s thousands of years of tradition from Sun Tzu to Sun Yat-sen alongside America’s inheritance from Jerusalem, Rome, Athens, Sparta, and the freedom declared in Philadelphia 250 years ago.

His central message acknowledged differences while emphasizing closeness. He said the two leaders understand they represent different systems, but the ties between their peoples endure and they’ve “never gotten along better.” He added that together they can keep building a relationship that promotes prosperity and security for future generations, and toasted a future of “harmony, peace and success” for both nations.

In response, Xi highlighted that the core ambitions of both nations—Trump’s pledge to “Make America Great Again” and China’s vision for “national rejuvenation”—do not have to be zero-sum. He noted that these objectives “can surely be mutually reinforcing” and called for exploring a new model of major-power relations based on respect, fairness, and reciprocity.

Xi explicitly warned against falling into the “Thucydides trap” – where an established power and a rising power drift into war. He emphasized that the U.S.–China competition “should be a healthy one” and stated that both Beijing and Washington “must hold the line” to ensure there is “no conflict and no confrontation between us”.

Touching on technology risks with major global implications, Xi urged that both major powers carry the responsibility to “develop and manage AI for good,” emphasizing dialogue on risks and ensuring advanced technologies remain under human control.

Business Leaders’ Response

Images show the business leaders reacting with enthusiasm to the evening. There are no reports of actual responses. But it can be assumed that the business leaders who turned out in force welcomed the optimistic and conciliatory tone of the speeches and viewed the leaders’ toast and collaborative rhetoric as geopolitical signalling of the two countries’ intention to protect global supply chains and cross-border investments, whilst working towards peaceful resolution of unresolved structural conflicts over trade, AI and other issues.

Western Wolf Warrior Journalism Response

A different take on the event and the entire visit has predictably emerged from the New York Times, the BBC, and other Western news institutions fixated on adversarial, cynical, or anti- alignment narratives, especially targeting China. For them, the occasion has provided a further opportunity to vilify President Xi and his government as well as to express their disapproval of Trump’s policies towards China.

It is well known that news ecosystems prioritize conflict, rivalry, and crisis over incremental stability. U.S. institutions operate within a domestic political climate where being perceived as “soft on China” carries heavy domestic political and monetary costs. Hence coverage consistently tilts toward highlighting skepticism, condemnation, risks, security warnings, and worst case scenarios.

However, when news reports of this important event and also the entire visit frames diplomatic engagement solely through the lens of threat, futility and preconceived condemnation, it narrows the political space for U.S. policymakers to seek pragmatic compromises. By portraying any concession or friendly posture as a strategic loss, media wolf warrior pressure can trap leaders into escalating stances that increase the risk of unintended conflict.

​In the past, wolf warrior journalism, however balanced or nuanced it was presented, on American conflicts and wars against Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and now Iran ended with disastrous outcomes for the U.S. Western media’s hyper-focus on conflict with China will similarly obscure genuine diplomatic progress, undermine public trust in peace-building, and make Americans pay a higher price for another never ending war.

Visit Public Impact

On the positive side, for the public, the display of harmony during the dinner and visit is reassuring on two important counts. Firstly the two leaders have signalled to markets that catastrophic economic decoupling or immediate conflict is being actively managed, and a baseline of decorum is being worked out between the two competing AI superpowers to avoid catastrophic outcomes. Secondly, the public declaration of warmth and respect is setting a directional tone for lower-level officials and bureaucrats to negotiate specific trade, technology, and security agreements without fear of immediate political blowback.

It is important that this path breaking statescraft is continued beyond this current U.S. administration.