State media moved overnight from departure notices to arrival coverage, reporting Xi landed at Joint Base Andrews and was met by Trump, carrying his written remarks about partners-not-rivals and finding the right way to get along. External outlets framed the same images as a break with protocol, noting no sitting US president had greeted a counterpart at the airport in decades.
By Thursday morning Washington time attention shifted to the White House welcome ceremony, with state outlets publishing Xi's speech in full and reporting small-group exchanges. SCMP singled out his call to keep AI under human control and Trump's invocation of wartime cooperation, alongside a B-2 and F-22 flyover, while business coverage turned to Chinese executives awaiting a state-dinner invitation and claims of an extended trade truce.