VOA Today's Focus (September 26, 2026)
This article reports on Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States, during which he held a tea meeting with US President Trump at the White House and toured the US National Archives. During the visit, various US-based groups, including Chinese Americans, Falun Gong practitioners, and Taiwanese and Hong Kong communities, held protests, while US Congressman Moolenaar issued a statement criticizing the authoritarianism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In addition, the report also focused on experts' analysis of US-China relations and the reactions of residents in Kinmen, Taiwan, to the US-China summit and cross-strait issues.
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Welcome to VOA Focus Today for September 26. I am Wang Yuhe, broadcasting live from the US capital, Washington. Every day we bring you up to speed on the latest developments in the US and around the world in 15 minutes. Here is today's headline news. US President Trump hosted visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping for a tea meeting at the White House on Friday morning. The two leaders affirmed that significant progress has been made during this visit. President Trump and the First Lady accompanied President Xi and his wife to the US National Archives to view precious documents of great significance in American history and the history of US-China relations.
John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party and Republican Representative from Michigan, released a statement after Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the U.S. National Archives. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, have concluded their state visit to the United States and their special plane has departed for the return flight. Xi's final stop before leaving the U.S. was a visit to the National Archives alongside President Trump and the First Lady. VOA reporter Huang Yaoyi was at the scene; let us take a look. After President Trump and Xi walked down the red carpet into the National Archives, their first stop was to view the Declaration of Independence. After spending about three minutes looking at the Declaration of Independence, they walked over to the U.S. Constitution to continue viewing it, and afterwards chatted briefly. President Trump told reporters at the scene that they were discussing the history between the United States and China, noting that China has 6,000 years of history while the United States has 250 years, but stating that he feels extremely proud of these 250 years. President Trump also told reporters that he believes this meeting between Trump and Xi went very well. Afterwards, they walked over to view the Civil Rights Act, and subsequently exited the National Archives at 12:04 PM. Now we see at the top of the red carpet, President Trump and President Xi Jinping, First Lady Melania, and Peng Liyuan have concluded their tour of the National Archives, and their cars are waiting below. They are now slowly walking down the red carpet, and after this very brief visit to the National Archives, you can see them now on the red carpet as President Trump bids farewell to President Xi Jinping. This marks Xi's final stop on this state visit to the United States, after which he will head to Joint Base Andrews to board his special plane back to China. Reported by VOA reporter Huang Yaoyi in Washington.
U.S. President Trump held a tea reception at the White House on Friday morning for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping, with both leaders affirming that the visit had achieved significant progress; please watch the report. President Trump hosted Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan once again at the White House on Friday morning for a tea reception. President Trump said this is a historic state visit. During the tea reception, President Trump specifically mentioned American farmers, stating that this visit has positive significance for both countries. Xi thanked President Trump and First Lady Melania for their hospitality toward him and his wife during the tea reception, saying that this visit has expanded the connotations of U.S.-China relations, and therefore we see an even brighter prospect for U.S.-China relations. Xi stated that the two will have two more opportunities to meet this year: once at the APEC Leaders' Meeting held in China, and another at the G20 Summit held in the United States. Following the tea reception, President Trump and Xi's delegation headed to the National Archives for a visit, after which Xi concluded his itinerary and departed Washington. Reported by VOA in Washington.
After concluding the tea reception with President Trump and the visit to the National Archives, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan finished their visit to the United States and departed for home. Xi and his wife headed to Joint Base Andrews in the suburbs of Washington on Friday noon, accompanied by U.S. Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley, walked the airport red carpet, and boarded the special plane, concluding their state visit to the United States. After President Xi's departure, President Trump praised the success of the meeting on Truth Social and confirmed that the two will meet twice more this year.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his state visit to the United States, Chairman Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party issued a statement following Xi's visit to the U.S. National Archives, criticizing the Chinese government's political system and calling for the release of U.S. citizens detained in China. On September 25, Representative John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan and Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, issued a statement after Xi Jinping visited the National Archives. He stated that American values are to secure life and liberty for all, while the values of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are tyranny, genocide, and oppression. Moolenaar said he hopes that Xi's visit to the National Archives, which houses founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, might prompt Beijing to change those cruel policies and allow the Chinese people to enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and a life of freedom and prosperity. He said that these American documents have inspired the pursuit of freedom around the world, and that America's founding principles and efforts to form a more perfect union are in every way opposed to the authoritarian rule of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. VOA News, Washington.
Regarding this U.S.-China summit, China expert Professor Miles Yu believes that the Trump administration has continued a consistent policy toward China. Here is what he said: I think that U.S. policy toward China, from the first Trump administration through the Biden administration to the present, has had significant continuity; it is not to say there have been that many changes. The first administration was, of course, very important. During the first Trump administration, we changed the entire U.S. strategic positioning toward China, which was to define the CCP as the number one threat to the United States. This was a very significant change. U.S. policy, American public sentiment, and the U.S. economy, politics, and military all made major, world-historically significant changes from the perspective of this redefinition. That is very important. Since then, the Biden administration has not changed our basic judgment at all, so they have also followed this path. Secondly, the basic positioning has not changed at all; the CCP is still the number one threat to the United States, and this threat is deepening day by day. This is not just something the U.S. government needs to convince the American people of; the American people see it very clearly, and Congress even more so—there has been no change whatsoever. U.S. policy toward China has become more mature and more targeted. Although it has not directly confronted the CCP, the delay in such confrontation has clearly decreased.
President Trump told Xi Jinping that they were good friends and that they wanted to reach a kind of strategic stability, but in reality, everything done in the second U.S. administration was related to the CCP because the CCP is indeed the number one threat to the United States. For example, strengthening domestic security and security in the Western Hemisphere is aimed at the CCP, to kick the CCP's influence out of places like the Panama Canal and Venezuela. Secondly, another policy priority in President Trump's second term was to strengthen deterrence, which is clearly aimed at China. Thirdly, it was to strengthen so-called burden-sharing among allies, meaning that U.S. allies, especially European allies, should increase their own defense spending to reduce the burden on the U.S., giving us more energy and financial resources to deal with the CCP. Finally, it was to revitalize the U.S. economy and rebuild the U.S. industrial base. Every key project in the second Trump administration was related to China. So, it is not that he is directly confronting China, but in many aspects, there is now technical control. The United States is an innovative country; it has many leading technologies in the world, and it must prevent the CCP from using technologies invented by the U.S. to deal with the United States.
Around the time of this Xi-Trump meeting, as Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the United States, there have been multiple protests against the Chinese government in the U.S. capital, Washington. Voice of America has gathered the voices of protest from Chinese living in the U.S., Falun Gong practitioners, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong groups; let's take a look. I know that the United States is a free country, so I will stand up bravely today, not just to speak for us, but to speak for the Chinese people who suffer unfair treatment every day and night. Because I see that the Chinese government has used some organizations to pay and buy many people to come and perform for them, acting as a crowd to say they welcome the Chinese government's visit and so on, but I want to come out and tell the world and the Chinese people that there are many of us who do not recognize the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and we represent this group of people who do not recognize it to come and protest. Well-known figures like Jimmy Lai, Gao Zhisheng, and Wang Bingzhang are all still in their prisons, so we hope they will release these political prisoners as soon as possible. I was studying at Tsinghua University in Beijing when I started practicing Falun Gong. I was in the middle of my doctoral studies when I was thrown into prison and locked up for five years. During those five years, I experienced various kinds of torture, such as slave labor production; we were forced to produce all kinds of slave labor products. End the persecution of Falun Gong as soon as possible and release all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners. The position is that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country, and our destiny must be decided by our 23 million people together. Stop suppressing Taiwan's living space in the international community; this is our main demand. We feel that while Xi Jinping's CCP regime is committing genocide, persecuting Hong Kong politicians and dissidents, and carrying out cultural genocide in Tibet, we should not roll out a red carpet to welcome him. What we want to emphasize here is to tell Xi Jinping and the CCP that their oppression of our nation and our community will absolutely not be accepted, and we will absolutely continue to resist.
Taiwan's Kinmen and China's Xiamen are less than two kilometers apart at their closest point. This geographical location makes local residents more concerned about the discussion of the Taiwan issue at the U.S.-China summit; please see the report. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a summit in Washington, where Xi expressed his hope that the Trump administration would handle the Taiwan issue with caution. Kinmen, located on the front line of Taiwan, and Xiamen, China, are less than two kilometers apart at their closest point. The residents on the island can be said to be one of the groups that feel the impact of the U.S.-China tug-of-war over the Taiwan issue most directly. Regarding the U.S.-China summit, some are worried, while others hold hope. Zhou Hongda, a 40-year-old real estate agent, said in an interview with Reuters that the tug-of-war between the U.S. and China would affect Taiwan's economy, saying that Taiwan's interests are also their interests, and they must prioritize protecting their own national interests. Lin Quanheng, a 30-year-old hotel manager, believes that U.S.-China dialogue is beneficial to Taiwan, saying, I think it is a good thing for Taiwan that the U.S. and China have started talks, because if Taiwan cannot start talks with China on an equal footing, then in terms of the U.S. and China, they certainly hope to resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully, so more talks between them would be better for Taiwan. Washington has always been Taiwan's most important international supporter, and there is currently a $14 billion arms sale package for Taiwan awaiting approval by the Trump administration. Voice of America reporter Liu Enming reporting from Washington.