Ecuador

Quito, September 25, 2026. The Ecuadorian press followed Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington, emphasizing the protocol staging rather than the content of the discussions. On Wednesday, September 23, Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump personally traveled to Andrews military base, on the outskirts of Washington, to welcome Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan on the tarmac — a gesture described as "unusual", breaking with the tradition of receiving foreign heads of state at the White House rather than at the airport. The ceremony included national anthems, a guard of honor, a military formation, and a flyover by two B-1 bombers, as well as a red carpet deployed from the plane's gangway.

This is Xi Jinping's first state visit to the White House in over a decade, since 2015 under Barack Obama, and his third in-person meeting with Trump since the Republican's return to power, after Busan and Beijing. Xi Jinping, who arrived on an Air China plane, is scheduled to remain in the United States until September 25.

According to Ecuadorian media, the central day of the visit, Thursday, September 24, brought the two presidents together at the White House for a bilateral meeting addressing the tariff truce, the war in Iran, the future of Taiwan, critical minerals, and the artificial intelligence race. Xi Jinping asked Trump for a relationship of "socios, no rivales" — partners, not rivals — between China and the United States.

The most reported gesture by the local press remains Xi's announcement, made during the welcoming ceremony, of the sending of two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, to the Atlanta zoo. Xi called the agreement "good news" and praised the panda loan program as proof of the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. Ecuadorian media link this gesture to the historical practice of "panda diplomacy", recalling that in 2024 the Atlanta zoo had returned its two previous specimens to China after a 25-year loan.

This emphasis on protocol and animal symbols, rather than the concrete results of the discussions, illustrates how the Ecuadorian press perceives this summit: a bilateral image exercise, where underlying tensions — trade, technology, Taiwan — remain in the background of official announcements.