Under Trump's gaze, Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands, one by one, with the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent; the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth; the senior advisor, Stephen Miller, and other high-ranking officials of the U.S. administration this Thursday, in a moment captured on video and widely shared on social media.
The formal greeting took place during President Donald Trump's state visit to China, which spans from May 13 to 15, 2026, and is the first by a sitting U.S. president to the Asian country in nearly nine years, since Trump's own visit in November 2017 during his first term.
The video was published by political commentator Eric Daugherty on X, who described Hegseth as "completely cold" while looking Xi in the eyes, interpreting it as a sign of firmness in the face of his "adversary."
Hegseth, who holds the secondary title of "Secretary of War" since the Executive Order 200 signed by Trump on September 14, 2025, which symbolically renamed the Department of Defense, is also the first Pentagon chief to accompany a U.S. president on a state visit to China since Richard Nixon in 1972.
Rubio's case had a particular diplomatic weight: China had sanctioned him twice in 2021, first for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and then for his statements regarding the "cultural genocide" against the Uighurs in Xinjiang.
To allow his entry despite the existing sanctions, Beijing executed a diplomatic maneuver described as unprecedented: it altered the official Mandarin transliteration of his surname.
The U.S. delegation in Beijing also included Eric Trump, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia), Tim Cook (Apple), and Ambassador David Perdue.
The bilateral meeting between Trump and Xi lasted approximately two hours and 15 minutes, with an agenda focused on trade, artificial intelligence, Taiwan, and Iran.
Xi urged Trump to be a "partner and not an adversary," while Trump stated that the relationship between the two countries "is going to be better than ever."
The event included a welcoming ceremony with a 21-gun salute, hundreds of children with flowers and flags, a visit to the Temple of Heaven, and a state banquet in the Great Hall of the People.
Xi Jinping warned during the summit about an "extremely dangerous" situation if the Taiwan issue is mishandled, in one of the moments of highest tension during the meeting.
As a gesture of reciprocity, Trump formally invited Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan to visit the White House on September 24, 2026.
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