US President Donald Trump will personally greet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews when Xi lands in Washington next Wednesday, a rare airport reception, a US official confirmed on background.
Trump will attend Xi’s arrival ceremony at Andrews, where the Chinese president’s aircraft is expected around 4:00 p.m. local time on September 23. The president almost never meets visiting heads of state at the airfield. He typically waits at the White House.
The gesture is not a perfect mirror of what Trump received in Beijing a few months ago. When Air Force One landed at Beijing Capital International Airport on May 13, Xi did not come to the tarmac.
