Chinese leader Xi Jinping is scheduled to travel to the United States on Sept. 23 for his first state visit in more than a decade, where he will meet President Donald Trump. Ahead of Xi’s arrival at the White House, Trump has sent several positive messages and made gestures toward China in an apparent effort to build confidence and trust.

Both U.S. allies and adversaries are closely watching the substance of the Trump-Xi negotiations, beginning with the state protocols and reception arrangements.

A White House official familiar with the event’s planning told Daniel Lippman of Politico that the gestures are part of an effort to “woo the Chinese leader so that the US can extract a few policy wins from him.”

Speaking at the Oval Office on Sept. 18, Trump said he expects a good meeting with Xi and that several deals are in the pipeline.

“I think he’s going to come… It’s nice that we get along very well. We’ve had a good relationship. He’ll be here next week… We’re going to have a very good meeting. I would say others maybe not so well, but we’re doing very well with China,” he said.

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“And President Xi and I have a good relationship… We are going to have a lot of different deals here… China is paying us a lot of tariffs… It was really hurting them badly, and I didn’t want to do that…”

In another unusual gesture, a senior White House official announced on Friday that Trump plans to personally greet Xi and Peng Liyuan at Joint Base Andrews, the military installation just outside Washington, D.C., upon their arrival. Typically, the first meeting between heads of state takes place at the White House.

“It is rare for the US president to greet visiting foreign leaders at the airport,” Reuters reported.

This warmer public choreography would mark the first time Trump has personally received a foreign leader at an airport during his second presidential term.

Trump is also extending full state-visit honors to Xi. The visit will include an arrival ceremony at the White House, a military review in the Rose Garden, and a state dinner in the evening.

The guest list is expected to include technology executives such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell.

Xi and Peng are scheduled to return to the White House on Friday for a private tea with Trump and the first lady. The Trumps will then take them on a tour of the National Archives, which houses some of America’s most important founding documents, as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary. After the tour, Xi is scheduled to head to Joint Base Andrews.

According to media reports, Trump’s warmer approach to state protocols is also accompanied by reciprocal gestures on issues sensitive to Beijing, including Taiwan, trade, and investment.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported on Saturday, citing multiple sources, that ahead of Xi’s visit, the Trump administration will likely postpone a decision on arms sales to Taiwan until the end of the year, after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, in November and the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Florida in December.

Trump also said in a Fox News interview on Sept. 11 that he would allow Chinese companies to build cars in the United States.

Original article