VOA Today's Focus (September 18, 2026) Trump-Xi Summit to be held next week, President Trump will personally welcome Xi Jinping at a U.S. military base

This article reports on the preparations for the upcoming Trump-Xi summit next week, including President Trump personally traveling to a U.S. military base to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two sides are expected to discuss issues such as trade, tariffs, the Taiwan Strait, and Iran. The report also covers news regarding the U.S. House of Representatives passing a sanctions bill against Russia that includes provisions to pressure China, religious groups calling for the summit to address human rights and religious freedom in China, and the U.S. Navy awarding Boeing the first production contract for MQ-25A carrier-based drones.

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Welcome to VOA Today's Focus for September 18. I am Huang Yaoyi, broadcasting live from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Here are today's headline news. White House officials stated that the Trump-Xi summit will take place next week, and President Trump will personally travel to a U.S. military base to welcome Xi Jinping and hold a welcoming ceremony for him. Before the Trump-Xi summit, the U.S. Department of State confirmed that Secretary of State Rubio had a phone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. With the Trump-Xi summit imminent, the Washington think tank CSIS analyzes three key issues: tariffs, the Taiwan Strait, and Iran.

At the invitation of President Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the White House on September 24. White House officials confirmed to the media on the 17th that President Trump will personally go to Joint Base Andrews at 4:00 PM on the 23rd to welcome him. When Xi Jinping visited at the invitation of President Obama in 2015, he was met at the airport by then-Vice President Biden. When U.S. presidents visit China, the Chinese side is also represented by state-level officials at the vice-presidential rank. During President Trump's second visit to China this May, he was met by the current Chinese Vice President, Han Zheng. When President Obama first visited China in 2009, he was met at the Beijing airport by then-Vice President Xi Jinping. The U.S. and Chinese leaders will hold talks on the 24th, and are expected to discuss U.S.-China trade, artificial intelligence, and Taiwan-related issues. President Trump will also host a state dinner at the White House to entertain Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan. According to reports from Reuters, CNBC, and other media, tech executives including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and recently retired former Apple CEO Tim Cook will attend the state dinner.

As the U.S.-China summit approaches, the U.S. Department of State confirmed to VOA on Thursday that Secretary of State Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone call. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a press release on September 17 stating that the U.S. and Chinese foreign ministers exchanged views on high-level exchanges and Middle East issues. U.S. Department of State officials further confirmed the call between Secretary Rubio and Wang Yi, but stated that there was no further information to provide. The most recent conversation between Rubio and Wang Yi was a bilateral meeting held in Manila, Philippines, in July while attending the ASEAN meeting, where the two exchanged views on the arrangements for the Trump-Xi summit.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive sanctions bill against Russia on Wednesday. The targets are not limited to Russia; buyers of Russian energy, including China, may also be affected, and the bill allows for tariffs of up to 100% on relevant countries. Below is a report by Voice of America reporters Li Yihua and Ning Lu from Capitol Hill. On Wednesday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive sanctions bill against Russia by a vote of 262 to 159. The bill will next be sent to the White House to await the signature of President Trump to take effect. The bill was primarily promoted by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and is therefore named after him. The core focus of the bill is to further restrict Russia's energy revenue and impose tariff pressure of up to 100% on buyers who continue to purchase large amounts of Russian energy. The primary target likely to be affected is China, Russia's largest oil buyer. Republican Representative McCaul, who promoted the bill in the House, told reporters that sanctions can potentially be evaded, but tariffs cannot—you cannot escape tariffs, and that is the power of tariffs, with the biggest violators being China. If we can both impose sanctions on China and levy tariffs, China can use this to pressure Putin and force him to the negotiating table. In fact, when Lindsey and I were both in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said that he was willing to call for a ceasefire and hold negotiations, but the problem was that Putin was unwilling. Therefore, we hope that through this pressure, we can get him to that point. Economically, we hope to make his economy bleed, just as he has made so many Ukrainians bleed, and ultimately resolve this war through peaceful means.

Although 58 Democratic lawmakers voted in favor, 152 Democrats still opposed the bill. Democratic Representative Hoyer, who co-promoted the bill with McCaul, also stated that the dissenting votes were not against Ukraine, but rather stemmed from concerns that the bill does not mandate President Trump to implement the actions. I believe all 58 of us trust that the bill requires sanctions to be implemented, hope the president will sign this law, and hope he will effectively enforce it, but those who voted against it were not targeting Ukraine; they voted against it because they do not trust Trump to implement the clauses in the bill, nor will he impose tariffs on countries not listed in the bill. Supporters of the bill stated that they hope these measures will increase Russia's economic pressure and push for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Next, after the bill is sent to the White House, it will await the president's signature to officially enact the new measures.

With a U.S.-China summit imminent, the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) held an in-depth discussion on tariff issues, the Taiwan issue, and the Iran issue that may be discussed at the summit. We connect with Voice of America reporter Wang Yuhe to introduce the observations of the experts participating in this seminar regarding the upcoming summit. China business expert Scott Kennedy analyzed that the summit is primarily focused on maintaining the smooth operation of bilateral relations and sustained dialogue, especially regarding substantive economic and trade issues. He pointed out that both sides are communicating on extending the duration of the tariff truce agreement, and he estimates that the two sides may reach a consensus on a one-year tariff truce. The Chinese side hopes to reach an agreement to extend the tariff truce until the end of the Trump administration, while the Trump administration only hopes to extend it by a few months to maintain leverage over China. I think the final outcome will fall somewhere in between, probably an extension of about a year.

Regarding national defense, military, and Taiwan Strait regional security issues, Bonny Lin, Director of the China Power Project at CSIS, stated that the U.S. and China have recently continued to promote military-level communication mechanisms. For example, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral Paparo held his first theater-level face-to-face meeting with General Yang Zhibin, commander of the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command, in late August during a meeting of Indo-Pacific defense chiefs held in Canada. Regarding the Taiwan Strait and arms sales issues, Lin analyzed that she expects Xi Jinping to raise the Taiwan issue once again and try to push the U.S. to delay or halt arms sales to Taiwan. Regarding the $14 billion arms sales package that has attracted outside attention, she said the most likely method currently is to break down the arms sales items into smaller pieces. Considering that many high-level international meetings, including the APEC summit, are scheduled for the second half of the year, the release schedule for this arms sales package is still under evaluation. The U.S. and China will still closely communicate regarding the situation in the Taiwan Strait. Regarding Iran, Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS (note: translated based on standard contextual mapping for the named expert/role), stated that the Treasury Department has now also included sanctioning Iran in the dialogue agenda, but the U.S. side is very cautious in this regard. Drawing on the experience of the past twenty years, the U.S. Treasury Department has always been reluctant to directly sanction large Chinese banks, so it is expected that the U.S. side will exert pressure by cracking down on intermediary institutions or small entities to avoid major conflicts before the summit.

As US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold a summit in Washington next week, US religious freedom groups hope to bring China's religious and human rights issues onto the agenda of the Trump-Xi meeting, and are calling on Beijing to release individuals detained for exercising their freedom of religious belief and speech. Below is a report by Voice of America reporter Xiangyu Xu. Here at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, just as Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Washington next week to hold a summit with US President Trump, representatives of multiple religious groups in Washington gathered at an event here on Thursday to share their experiences and demands. The organizers stated that choosing to hold this event before Xi's visit to the US aims to bring the issues of religious freedom and persecution in China onto the agenda of the Trump-Xi meeting, calling on Trump to demand the release of individuals detained for exercising freedom of religious belief and speech when meeting with Xi. I really hope that these religious freedom issues can begin to be raised universally, because the Chinese Communist Party is extremely repressive toward all religious groups, which is completely unacceptable to those of us who love freedom. But at the same time, China is one of our largest trading partners, and the funds we use for trade with China are subsequently used to finance domestic oppression within China. Brownback said that Trump is one of the few US presidents who has openly taken a tough stance on China, and if the Chinese government does not stop its persecution of religious believers, US-China economic relations may face greater pressure.

Pastor Jin Mingri, who was detained by the Chinese government for 266 days, was released on the eve of US Independence Day this year. Actually, during the last time President Trump and President Xi Jinping met, because of that summit, I gained my freedom. I hope that this time when Chairman Xi comes to the United States to meet with President Trump, more people can be released. I still have eight colleagues there, as well as leaders of many, many Chinese house churches such as Pastor Gao Qinpu and Pastor Wang Ning who are still in prison, and I hope they can be released. An attendee said that he was detained in China for five years for practicing Falun Gong, during which he was forced to engage in forced labor, and displayed a Spider-Man toy, claiming that this was one of the forced labor products made while being persecuted in mainland China. The brutal persecution of Falun Gong is not, as people might imagine, thousands of miles away from everyone; in fact, it may be closely related to everyone's life. Especially as the leader of the Western world, the United States should seize this opportunity to curb the rise of the human rights-ignoring the Chinese Communist Party as soon as possible, which is very important. Perhaps this is the last chance, this is a very urgent matter, and I very much hope that the human rights issue can be placed in a higher position than economic, political, and other issues during the Trump-Xi meeting. Hong Kong activist Nicole Chow focused her attention on Hong Kong media figure Jimmy Lai. We very much hope that Jimmy Lai's case can be brought up again, and not just as a reminder, but to actively prioritize his case and rescue him out, because we all know that Jimmy Lai's situation is very concerning now. Attendees hope that President Trump will put these individual cases along with broader religious freedom and human rights issues on the diplomatic agenda during the Trump-Xi meeting.

The U.S. Department of Defense stated that the U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a contract to produce the first three MQ-25A Stingray carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicles. The Stingray is the first U.S. drone designed to provide aerial refueling for carrier-based aircraft, which can significantly increase the combat radius of carrier air wings, marking an improvement in the future capability of U.S. aircraft carriers to counter the People's Liberation Army's maritime anti-access and area-denial capabilities. Please see the report by VOA reporter Liu Wenming. The MQ-25A Stingray is the U.S. Navy's first carrier-based drone to enter operational service, specifically designed to perform unmanned aerial refueling for carrier-based aircraft, enhancing the combat range, endurance, and flexibility of carrier air wings. According to data from Boeing, the MQ-25 T1 test aircraft has successfully conducted aerial refueling for three types of carrier-based aircraft: the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the E-2D Hawkeye, and the F-35C Lightning II. The U.S. Navy issued a press release on September 17 stating that following the successful first flight of the MQ-25A Stingray on April 25, Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker announced on May 19 that the MQ-25A had received Milestone C approval, entering the low-rate initial production phase. The U.S. Department of Defense stated on September 15 that the U.S. Navy awarded Boeing a fixed-price incentive contract worth $562 million for the first low-rate initial production batch of MQ-25A Stingray carrier-based drones. This contract not only provides funding for the first three Stingray drones but also provides funds for the advance procurement of long-lead components to support the production of the second batch of MQ-25A, with the first delivery of the initial batch expected to begin in 2029. A 2024 report by the Congressional Research Service pointed out that the combat radius of existing U.S. carrier air wings forces Navy carriers to operate within the strike range of the PLA's anti-ship ballistic missiles or other anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems, and the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker is one of the countermeasures the Navy should adopt. According to the U.S. Navy, the Stingray can increase the combat range of carrier-based aircraft by approximately 480 to 640 kilometers. The official MQ-25A program plan includes 76 aircraft, including 4 engineering and manufacturing development aircraft and 5 system demonstration aircraft; currently, 7 test aircraft are in production.