Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet, with a world in turmoil

President Donald Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping, were meeting in Beijing on Thursday, beginning a high-stakes summit that will focus on trade, Iran, Taiwan and other points of contention.

The meeting, the first U.S. presidential visit to China in nearly a decade, could determine whether a detente that has prevailed between the superpowers will continue -- and what concessions, if any, either side is willing to make.

Xi met Trump on Thursday morning outside the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing. They shook hands, and Trump patted Xi on the arm before they walked together past an honor guard and rows of cheering children. As "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, a 21-gun salute echoed across Tiananmen Square.

Inside the Great Hall, both leaders hailed the importance of the U.S.-China relationship. Xi called for the two countries to work together to confront an increasingly "complex and turbulent world."

"We should be partners, not adversaries," he said. "I have always believed that the common interests between China and the United States outweigh their differences."

Trump emphasized his personal relationship with Xi. "I would call you, and you would call me whenever we had a problem, people don't know, whenever we had a problem. We worked that out very quickly, and we're going to have a fantastic future together," Trump said.

"You're a great leader," he told Xi, with both delegations seated facing each other at a long table. "It's an honor to be your friend, and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before."

The two leaders last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a bruising trade war in which Beijing had threatened to impose sweeping new restrictions on exports of rare earths in response to triple-digit U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

Xi decided at the time to postpone those measures for a year. A question looming over the summit is whether China will agree to an extension.

Trump has said his trip to Beijing, which will include meetings with Xi at historic landmarks and conclude Friday, will focus on trade and investment. Several top executives, including Jensen Huang of U.S. chip giant Nvidia, have joined the president in China. American business leaders have been pushing for measures that would further open the Chinese market, though analysts say that a major deal is unlikely. Beijing could make some limited promises on purchases of Boeing aircraft and U.S. agricultural goods such as soybeans and beef, they say.

The president is also expected to call on Xi to help persuade Iran, China's closest partner in the Middle East, to end the deadlocked war that the United States and Israel started in late February.

Xi will have other priorities. Analysts say he may push for the loosening of U.S. export controls on advanced technology, and for pledges from Trump not to raise tariffs on Chinese goods, among other things.

But the Chinese leader's main priority is Taiwan, the issue that could most likely set off a war with the United States. Xi may try to persuade Trump to break with long-standing U.S. policy by saying he opposes independence for Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory. A related Chinese priority is persuading the United States to curtail its arms sales to Taiwan.

Forcing major shifts in U.S. policies toward Taiwan would be a long shot. But then again, Xi has a powerful card to play: China's economic leverage over Iran, and the prospect that it could potentially help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway that has been blocked since the war started.

Here's what else we're covering:

-- Summit security: Chinese officials rolled out an array of security measures in Beijing, closing parks and major roads. Armed officers were stationed outside Trump's hotel.

-- Artificial intelligence: Trump and Xi are expected to discuss the risks from AI, but neither country seems willing to be the first to slow down.

-- Human rights: Trump has said he will raise the case of Jimmy Lai, an imprisoned pro-democracy media mogul, during his trip. Other human rights issues, including the systemic repression of the Uyghurs, are unlikely to make the agenda.

-- Imperial style: In private meetings with less powerful foreign leaders, Xi carries himself as a philosopher king in the mold of ancient Chinese rulers.