Xi arrives for state visit amid U.S.-China trade tensions and AI concerns

Geoff Bennett:

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington this evening for his first state visit in more than a decade. And at the same time, a federal judge today heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by CNN, MS NOW and Politico challenging President Trump banning them from the White House.

Our Liz Landers is at the White House covering both stories, and she joins us now.

So, Liz, we will start with this state visit. What is the focus of it?

Liz Landers:

Yes, Geoff, President Trump is greeting leader Xi right now at Joint Base Andrews here in Washington for an arrival ceremony that has all the pomp and circumstance of this major state visit.

This is the first time that Xi has been to the White House since 2015. And President Trump visited China back in May and was not awarded this same kind of pomp, circumstance and arrival. In particular, Xi did not greet him when he landed there in China back in May. You're seeing some of those images now.

I will remind our viewers that those images are from several months ago because the White House TV pool is still not covering the president's events today. We believe that there are going to be a number of issues that will be addressed during this visit.

A senior administration official told us earlier that AI, artificial intelligence, of course, will be on the top of the list, also some of these export controls that the United States has on our computing chips and selling those to China. The possibility of reducing tariffs on some goods is apparently going to come up, and also political prisoners.

Several China watchers and experts that I have spoken with don't really think that this meeting is going to be so much about deliverables as it is about continuing to forge that personal relationship that President Trump has with leader Xi.

I spoke earlier today with Kyle Chan. He's a fellow at the Brookings institute. And he was actually talking about these export controls, saying that matters less and less for the Chinese government because they are going all out to build their own AI chips themselves.

And when it comes to artificial intelligence in particular, you heard some of that addressed from the U.N. today in Nick's story. China is not interested in a joint slowdown of AI development, according to Chan. He says that they're more worried about cyber risks, hacking companies, and they don't share, China does not share the same concerns that we have heard from U.S. AI companies and leaders recently that robots, AI may kill us all in the near future.

Geoff, one more thing I want to add. Not everybody is happy about this visit and all of the accoutrements that are being laid out for President Xi. Republican Senator Wicker, he's the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says that he would have advised against this lavish welcome to what he calls a brutal dictator.

Geoff Bennett:

And, Liz, there's a state dinner tomorrow evening. Who is expected to be in attendance?

Liz Landers:

Well, Geoff, as you would imagine, with all of this talk of AI and technology, there are leaders from several major business companies and AI companies that are going to be at the White House tomorrow.

A senior administration official says that Jeff Bezos will be there, as well as Elon Musk, Michael Dell, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, a chipmaker, and Sam Altman of OpenAI. The first lady, Melania Trump, said in a FOX News interview today that President Trump wanted to have the state dinner because they have a great relationship.

She said that she's been involved in every detail of the planning for the state dinner tomorrow night. And she also -- and I'd also just add that this is only the second state dinner that President Trump has now had in his second term in office, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, Liz, in the minute we have left, bring us up to speed on this lawsuit involving the three news organizations that were banned from the White House by President Trump.

Liz Landers:

There was a hearing on this, this afternoon, and the judge in this case, a district judge here in Washington, said right off the bat that he was skeptical of the argument that the Trump administration, that the Trump White House is making here on due process grounds.

It sounds like the judge believes that the due process of these news organizations was violated. The government is arguing in a filing that they issued late last night that news organizations failed to maintain basic minimum standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House.

This has now turned into a conversation about national security. That is what the president and the administration are arguing is at stake here, that these news organizations somehow violated national security there. The judge also seemed skeptical of that, Geoff. We still do not have an answer from the judge as to whether the ban on Politico, CNN, and MS NOW will be lifted.

Geoff Bennett:

Liz Landers outside the West Wing at the White House for us tonight.

Liz, thanks so much.

Liz Landers:

Of course.