The Chinese leader took a moment to note the coming anniversary — something that is a big deal for US President Donald Trump.
The massive months-long celebration is to include a “Great American State Fair” in Washington and a UFC fight night on the South Lawn of the White House.
“This year marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. I extend my congratulations to you and to the American people,” Xi said. He added, “I firmly believe the common interests between China and the United States are bigger than our differences.”
Xi offers more cautionary tone at start of talks
The leaders offered warm words about each other and hope for the future of US-China relations as they opened their bilateral talks.
But Xi sounded more cautionary about what lies ahead for the world's biggest economic powers.
“Cooperation benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both,” Xi said. “The two countries should be partners rather than rivals, achieve success together and pursue common prosperity, and chart a correct path for major-country relations in the new era.”
Why Xi is asking Trump for US and China to avoid the Thucydides Trap'
In remarks welcoming Trump, Xi name-checked an ancient Greek historian to express his hopes that the US and China can avoid conflict, saying that history, the world and its people were asking “whether the two countries can transcend the “Thucydides Trap” and forge a new model for relations between major powers.
”He was using a term that's popular in foreign policy studies, referring to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established power, the result is often war.
It comes from Thucydides' account of the destructive Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, in which he remarked that “It was the rise of Athens, and the fear that rise engendered in Sparta, that made war inevitable.”
Published on May 14, 2026