Xi ends Washington visit with Taiwan demand; human rights go unmentioned in public

On Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has left Washington after a three-day state visit that ended with a promise of two more meetings with President Donald Trump this year. The two sides also agreed to extend their trade truce to January 2027, and Xi announced that China will send two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta. In the public remarks reviewed by Közet, neither leader mentioned human rights, including Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and Tibetans or its policies in Hong Kong.

The two leaders met privately for 90 minutes on Sept. 24, AP reported. According to Xinhua, China’s state news agency, Xi said China hopes the US side will “adhere to the correct position of opposing ‘Taiwan independence.'” Washington’s long-standing formulation is that it does not support Taiwan independence. The day after the talks, US Ambassador to China David Perdue told CNBC there was “no change in the Taiwan policy” and that Trump remains committed to the One China policy. “We don’t want coercion. We don’t support independence,” Perdue said. He also said Trump reiterated to Xi that any Chinese help to Iran would be “totally unacceptable.” Asked what the visit accomplished, Trump said, “Oh, everything,” without giving details.

Trump did not answer reporters’ questions about whether he raised the case of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai. Before the visit, a US official said Trump was likely to raise cases of people wrongfully detained in China, Reuters reported. Közet found no statement from either government on whether he did. On Sept. 23, China’s ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, wrote in the People’s Daily that “democracy and human rights” are among Beijing’s “red lines.”

Tibetan, Uyghur, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Falun Gong and Chinese democracy groups protested near the White House and the Chinese embassy during the visit.

Xi invited Trump to the APEC summit in Shenzhen in November. After Xi departed, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “the meeting was one of Friendship, Strength, and Success, for both China and the U.S.A.” and that the two will meet again in China in November and at the G20 summit in Miami in December.