China

Beijing, Wednesday, September 23, 2026. China's official press has set the narrative even before Xi Jinping's landing in Washington for a three-day state visit, from September 23 to 25, his first to Washington in over ten years. On the front page, the Communist Party's organ laid out Beijing's "red lines": Taiwan and human rights are non-negotiable, with the rest of the relationship to be guided by a "constructive strategic stability" sealed during Trump's visit to Beijing in May. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the exchange of visits over six months as a "historic milestone," with spokesperson Guo Jiakun emphasizing that head-of-state diplomacy "plays an irreplaceable strategic role" in stabilizing the relationship.

In substance, Beijing is making calculated gestures. Two additional chemical precursors were added, on the eve of Xi's departure, to the list of substances subject to export licenses to North America, bringing to 18 the number of fentanyl-related products under control. However, trade tensions are emerging: Washington accuses Beijing of creating "uncertainty" about the extension of the 2025 Busan agreement due to insufficient exports of rare earths, and disagreements over cross-investments have weakened the participation of a Chinese business delegation in the trip, with the leaders of DeepSeek and Moonshot AI absent from the reported list.

On Taiwan, Chinese diplomacy is pressing Washington to slow down, or even delay, arms sales to the island, while the Taiwanese opposition is concerned about restrictions imposed on official visits to Washington. Beijing is also calling on Berlin to prevent the European Union from waging a trade war against China, with Wang Yi asking his German counterpart to defend "free trade".

The tone deployed elsewhere remains that of people-to-people friendship: Xi responded by letter to American students who came to China through the Future Makers 2026 program, praising a youth that "shares one planet". Beijing recalls that it reached, as early as May, the goal of hosting 50,000 American young people in five years, two and a half years ahead of the deadline announced by Xi in 2023 in San Francisco.