Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

The White House and the military were tight-lipped about the exact order of events, and what today entails.

We can now report the event includes a 100-foot (30m) red carpet, a battery salute from the cannons, three colour teams - ceremonial units - with US and Chinese flags, the US Air Force band playing both national anthems and platoons from each military service.

There will also be a flyover by a pair B-1 bombers, long a workhorse of the US combat arsenal and a key part of US conventional and nuclear strike capabilities. The aircraft has seen extensive combat service, most recently in the skies over Iran.

Image source, Reuters

A large and long red carpet is now being rolled out for the Chinese delegation.

Image source, Reuters

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

After the long flight from Beijing, the official aircraft carrying Xi Jinping turned and taxied up to the main event portion of the tarmac at 17:45.

It came to a halt directly in front of us at 17:48. We are about 150 yards from the left wing of the aircraft and the engines were turned off at 17:49.

The band is marching up now, and the red carpet being unfurled.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The Air China plane carrying Chinese leader Xi Jinping, his wife Peng Liyuan and other delegates has touched down at 17:39 local time at Joint Base Andrews, where US President Donald Trump will greet them.

Image source, Getty Images

When the US president travels, they have Air Force One, one of the most recognisable aircraft in the world.

As it comes into view above Joint Base Andrews, Xi Jinping's plane is similar in many ways - it's almost always a Boeing 747 made up will all the bells and whistles required for the Chinese leader's travel. But it's less known to the world, and that's because it's not always the same plane.

Unlike the US, the Chinese government doesn't have an aircraft (or multiple) just for official presidential travel. Rather, Xi uses a 747 from an the Air China fleet of planes.

Chinese officials have told media that this measure is to reduce waste by making use of existing aircraft. The country's Air Force inspects the plane and modifies it to suit the president's needs, according to Chinese media, including removing seats to make space for sofas and beds.

Otherwise, little has been made public about the aircraft, though it's usually seen with an official flag near the door where the Chinese leader exits.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

China is often painted as an adversary and potential enemy by prominent Americans, both in and out of government. But Trump’s lavish welcome comes at a time when American attitudes towards China appear to be warming.

A recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that 41% of Americans see China’s territorial ambitions as a threat to the US. But that number is down from 52% in 2022.

More than half of Americans - 57% - believe the US should cooperate and engage with Beijing. Notably, that statistic cuts across the US political spectrum. Of Republicans who do not identify as Maga, 57% favour cooperation, as do most Democrats, both moderate and liberal.

However most Maga Republicans - 63% - favour limiting US relations with China - putting the president’s most loyal base at odds with Trump’s efforts to cosy up to Xi.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

Image source, Reuters

The arrival is still a little while away, but Joint Base Andrews has begun buzzing with activity.

A series of black SUVs and limos are parked near the tarmac, and the Air Force band has begun marching in formation onto the tarmac. It's hard to hear over the wind and a circling helicopter, but we can hear their drums and the faint commands of the officer giving directions. Other formations from the other services - including the Space Force subsequently joined as well, with rifles on their shoulders.

By the cannons, a group of blue Airmen in formal dress uniforms appears to be receiving instructions, and the honour guard that will meet Xi's aircraft is standing to my right. One of its members, from the US Army, is holding a US flag. Two members down the line, a member of the Marine Corps is holding a Chinese flag.

Image source, Reuters

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to greet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The Trumps stepped out of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, and into a motorcade to be taken to the location of the arrival ceremony.

Image source, Reuters

US First Lady Melania Trump says she has been involved intimately with the planning of the itinerary for the visitors from Beijing.

"Every detail, I was involved," she told Fox News in an interview. She says Trump made the decision to personally greet Xi himself at the airport "because they have a great relationship" but she has involved in the other major components of the visit such as the state dinner.

"There is a lot of detail that comes into the plan, there is protocol that you need to follow" she said.

Aside from the arrival ceremonies at the White House, Mrs Trump has also planned a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art with her Chinese counterpart Peng Liyuan to show the cultural connections between the US and China.

The landmark visit will end on a historical note at the National Archives building where the couples will view important national records including those of "significant to the American and Chinese relationship," the White House says.

Image source, Getty Images

During their last visit in Beijing, Donald Trump was accompanied by a posse of tech executives from some of America's largest firms – including Apple's Tim Cook, Tesla's Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang.

The South China Morning Post reports that Xi Jinping plans to mirror the delegation Washington sent last May.

But the exact names of which executives the Chinese leader plans to arrive with on Wednesday afternoon have yet to be confirmed.

His wife, Peng Liyuan, is confirmed to be travelling with Xi and the two will return to China on Friday.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

Image source, Reuters

The media covering the arrival is still not on the tarmac, huddled under coats amid a cold and unpleasant wind.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump left the White House at 16:39 ET. He offered no comments to the media gathered there.

He did, however, briefly wave before Marine One, his helicopter, took off at 16:43 ET.

From the tarmac, we can hear the rotors of the helicopters steadily getting louder as they approach.

BBC Global China Unit

Image source, Getty Images

Xi Jinping's story began in privilege.

Born in Beijing in 1953, he is the sixth child of Xi Zhongxun, a Communist revolutionary who helped establish the People's Republic of China. His father eventually became a senior party leader and vice premier.

As a young child, Xi attended prestigious schools and enjoyed privileges unavailable to most families.

Then politics turned against his family. In the early 1960s, Xi's father was accused of being part of an "anti-party" clique, banished to the countryside to work in a factory and purged from the party.

As the son of someone deemed to be a "counter-revolutionary", teenage Xi was forcibly sent to a re-education facility. Heeding the calls of then leader Mao Zedong to go to the villages and learn from the peasantry, 15-year-old Xi headed to the countryside with millions of other city students.

At 22, he left the countryside to study chemical engineering at Tsinghua University, one of China's best academic institutions. After graduating, he worked as a local official. His father's rehabilitation after Mao's death helped Xi land positions in the central government and the military, building relationships within the party.

In 2007, after a brief stint as top leader in Shanghai, Xi joined the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body.

Five years later, he succeeded Hu Jintao as the leader of the Communist Party.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

Just a few moments ago, I stepped out onto the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. It's unlike anything I've seen here over dozens of flights in and out with the White House.

Two sets of large risers have been set up for cameras, one each for US and Chinese media. About a dozen American TV crews are there. Some are from the major networks, and a large representation from conservative, Maga-adjacent media outlets.

To the left of the risers on the tarmac, I counted a dozen or so combat aircraft, both older F-16s and newer F-22s, among the most advanced fighter jets in the US arsenal.

To the right of the risers, four ceremonial cannons have been set up for the arrival. Uniformed military personnel are currently milling around.

Normally, there is very little fanfare to arrivals and departures here. Trump gets here, he either talks or he doesn't, and onto the aircraft he goes.

Brandon Drenon
US reporter

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not flying over 6,900 miles (11,104km) to visit Trump in Washington purely for the pomp and pageantry.

He, like Trump, has an agenda.

Both sides will be looking to extend a trade truce reached last year when Trump and Xi met in South Korea.

The agreement – which saw Trump lower tariff rates on some goods in exchange for Xi loosening restrictions on rare earth minerals – expires in November.

David Firestein from the Bush China Foundation says Trump will aim to achieve other deals around trade and tariffs – like lowering Chinese tariffs on American products, increasing imports of Chinese rare earth minerals, and increasing exports of US agricultural products.

Firestein expects Xi to try to influence Trump to further stall - or kill - a congressionally approved $14bn (£10.5bn)-arms sale to Taiwan and deepen US-China trade integration.

These are the same US-China issues for the ages, he says, but, this time, “there seems to be a greater degree of, let's say, stability within the relationship, or less volatility relative to where we were last year in 2025”.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

I’m currently at Joint Base Andrews, the sprawling US military facility outside Washington DC. Here, in a just under two hours, Donald Trump will arrive to greet Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a high-stakes visit to the US capital.

I’ve covered many visits by foreign leaders - including from key US allies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East - but the set-up this time is unlike anything I’ve seen.

Usually, on formal state visits, leaders drive in through the north gate of the White House past a line of uniformed soldiers. Trump welcomes them at the door of the West Wing. On less formal occasions, the leaders sometimes go through a side door between the White House and the Executive Office Building, unseen by the prying eyes of the media.

In fact, it is the first time since 1962 that a US president has personally welcomed a foreign leader at the base. That year, then-President John F Kennedy greeted British PM Harold Macmillan.

The welcome is a sign of the importance that Trump is giving this visit, and largely reflective of the enormous issues the two must discuss, including AI, trade, the war with Iran and Beijing’s long-standing claim over Taiwan.

Notably, the gesture is not one that was extended to President Trump when he travelled to China in May.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit will take place over three days, and the White House is rolling out the red carpet.

Here's how things are set to unfold:

Wednesday

• Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan arrive at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland where US President Donald Trump will greet them

Thursday

• Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host Xi and Peng at the White House
• An arrival ceremony will be followed by a military inspection in the White House's Rose Garden
• Bilateral meeting between Trump and Xi
• State dinner attended by US and Chinese officials as well as tech leaders. Trump and Xi will both speak

Friday

• Xi and Peng attend private tea at the White House with the Trumps
• The couples tour the National Archives, where the US's founding documents, like the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, are preserved
• Xi and Peng will then depart from Joint Base Andrews

Image source, Reuters

US President Donald Trump will host Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington on Wednesday as he arrives for a three-day visit to the American capital.

Xi will be greeted personally by Trump at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland later today, kickstarting a whirlwind 72 hours full of pomp and pageantry, that includes lavish dinners, private tours and performances.

It marks Xi's first trip to the US in over a decade and his third meeting with Trump since the US president began his second term in office.

Everything from AI to trade and Taiwan will be on the agenda in what is expected to be a high-stakes state visit for the leaders of the global superpowers.

It comes as a trade deal agreed between the two is set to expire in November. US negotiators are expected to continue talks with Chinese counterparts in Washington on Wednesday after Xi's arrival.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest updates and analysis throughout the day.