China-US summit ‘remarkable’ but is it enough to change relations?

But a summit would not be enough to change the overall structure of ties, which had been fraught for years, Li said on Thursday as US President Donald Trump began the first full day of his state visit

to Beijing – the first by an American leader since 2017.

The two presidents began the day with two hours of talks at the Great Hall of the People, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged the two countries to be “partners, not rivals”.

The meeting is one of several Xi and Trump are expected to have this year – a year that Beijing has said will be a big one for US-China relations.