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WASHINGTON, United States: The US military honor guard has been rehearsing and the new White House helipad is ready. But will Xi Jinping and Donald Trump achieve lift-off at their summit next week?<\/p>\n
Warnings of an AI apocalypse hang heavy over the Chinese president\u2019s first talks at the White House with his US counterpart, with both countries racing for supremacy in this technology.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s Iran war casts a long shadow too, as China seeks to avoid US sanctions against countries dealing with Tehran, despite reports that Beijing supplied Tehran with intelligence for a strike on US troops.<\/p>\n
A trade war is of even greater concern and the world\u2019s two largest economies are still seeking to mitigate the fallout from Trump\u2019s global tariffs. The threat of war over Taiwan looms large as well.<\/p>\n
Behind it all is desire to manage tensions between a superpower keen to keep its place at the top and a rapidly rising rival determined to make the 21st century a Chinese one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be discussing almost everything with him,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, ahead of their meeting on September 24.<\/p>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t expect much\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n But the two leaders are more likely to simply extend a relative truce rather than produce any concrete results, like when Xi hosted Trump in Beijing four months ago, experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t expect much to come out of this,\u201d Jonathan Czin of the Brookings Institution told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways, this is going to be a recapitulation of Trump\u2019s visit to Beijing back in May, where the focus was really on the ostensible rapport between the two leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n With fears about AI making global headlines, agreement to cooperate on regulation or a slowdown is expected to be a major topic of discussion between Trump and Xi.<\/p>\n But any major deals are \u201cpolitically out of reach for now,\u201d said Wang Dong, a professor at Peking University, as Beijing and Washington both fear losing out in the race for AI dominance.<\/p>\n Tensions over Iran will also come up. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to meet his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng this weekend for pre-summit talks including on Iran sanctions.<\/p>\n Trump has, however, played down reports that Chinese entities supplied Iran with satellite imagery for an attack on a US military base in Jordan, saying Xi had \u201cbehaved reasonably well\u201d and that \u201cwe spy on them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n On trade, there is \u201croom for progress on tariffs, agricultural purchases and selected export controls,\u201d Yue Su of The Economist Intelligence Unit told AFP.<\/p>\n \u2018Spectacle\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet Trump has, as so often before, appeared more interested in the optics of his meeting with a powerful foreign leader than with the substance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is less a summit and more a spectacle. This is designed for deep public consumption,\u201d said Kurt Campbell, former US Deputy Secretary of State and now Chairman of The Asia Group.<\/p>\n Trump pushed for a new granite helicopter landing pad on the White House South Lawn to be open in time for Xi\u2019s visit, which will include a grand state dinner.<\/p>\n Troops in flashy uniforms have been rehearsing on the White House driveway this week ahead of the welcome ceremony.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s only disappointment is that his under-construction $400 million ballroom won\u2019t be ready \u2014 though he has said that when finished it will \u201ctop\u201d Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People, where Xi hosted him in May.<\/p>\n During the Beijing trip Trump showered praise on Xi, only for the Chinese leader to warn about possible \u201cconflict\u201d over Taiwan.<\/p>\n Fears of a possible Chinese invasion of the self-governing island and global semiconductor hub \u2014 which Beijing claims as its territory \u2014 remain the most sensitive topic between Washington and Beijing, said Peking University\u2019s Wang.<\/p>\n One possible concrete deliverable is an announcement of further summits.<\/p>\n Trump and Xi are expected to meet in November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shenzen, China. The Kremlin has suggested a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n Trump is meanwhile expected to invite Xi to the G20 summit in December at his Doral resort in Miami.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n