Xi Jinping will travel to Washington for a one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on September 24, but he will skip the UN General Assembly taking place in New York the same week. The trip, confirmed on August 17, will be Xi's second in-person meeting with Trump in 2026.
Xi Jinping is heading to Washington on September 24 for a one-on-one with Donald Trump at the White House, skipping the United Nations General Assembly entirely. The decision was confirmed on August 17.
Rather than joining the multilateral gathering in New York, where the UNGA high-level segment kicks off on September 22, Xi is opting for a narrow trip centered on the US relationship alone. His itinerary reportedly has him arriving late on September 23 and departing on September 25.
Trump first floated the September 24 date publicly around July 6, and the agenda is expected to cover artificial intelligence, trade, and technology. This will be Xi's second in-person meeting with Trump in 2026, following Trump's state visit to Beijing in May. That earlier meeting apparently generated enough momentum for both sides to want a follow-up on American soil.
Xi passing on the General Assembly might sound dramatic, but it is actually his usual pattern. Since taking office in 2012, he has attended the UNGA exactly once, and in 2025, he sent Premier Li Qiang in his place.
Two in-person summits in a single calendar year is still notable. There have been stretches in the US-China relationship where leaders went years without face-to-face engagement, particularly during the more contentious phases of the first Trump administration and parts of the Biden era.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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