MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Beijing asks Washington to “overcome obstacles” before Xi's White House visit

The visit is scheduled for September 24. It will be the first by a Chinese leader to the White House since September 2015, when Xi was received by Barack Obama

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged the United States to “remove interference” and “overcome obstacles” in high-level exchanges between the two countries, during a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday with US Ambassador David Perdue, as part of preparations for President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington.

Wang said the bilateral relationship “continues to face various risks and challenges,” though he argued that improving it “serves the fundamental interests of both peoples,” according to the statement released by China's foreign ministry. He called for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state, focusing on a positive agenda and managing differences so that ties advance in a “stable, healthy and sustainable” direction.

The same text attributes to Perdue the description of Trump's visit to China last May as a “great success” and Washington's readiness to strengthen communication and prepare the next stage of exchanges. The ambassador confirmed separately, in a post on X, that the talks formed part of preparations for the state visit, without detailing their content.

The visit is scheduled for September 24. It will be the first by a Chinese leader to the White House since September 2015, when Xi was received by Barack Obama, and the first state visit by a Chinese president to the United States in more than a decade. Xi will be accompanied by his wife, Peng Liyuan. It will not, however, be his first meeting with Trump on US soil: the two met in April 2017 at the then president's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

The trip follows the invitation Trump extended during his own visit to Beijing in May, the first by a US president to China in nine years. That trip, originally planned for March and postponed because of the crisis with Iran, included a large business delegation with executives from Tesla, Apple, Boeing and Nvidia. According to Wang, the two leaders have held two meetings and five telephone conversations since Trump took office.

Also on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Wang discussed by telephone the identification of areas of cooperation ahead of the summit. Neither side has published a formal agenda, though reports point to trade, technology, climate and regional security.

The state of relations between the two economies has direct implications for Latin America. China is the main trading partner of Brazil, Chile and Peru, and the second largest for Argentina, and prices for the commodities the region exports depend substantially on Chinese demand.