Beijing, China - Chinese President Xi Jinping jetted off from Beijing on Wednesday, bound for Washington where he will meet with President Donald Trump for highly-anticipated talks.

The highly anticipated talks come as the two countries confront rising fears about increasingly capable artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and as both sides look to ease tensions on trade.

Xi "left Beijing by special plane," accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, his right-hand man Cai Qi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and others, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

Trump is due to personally meet Xi on his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, before their highly-anticipated meetings kick off on Thursday, White House officials confirmed this week.

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Xi and Peng will attend a ceremony at the White House on Thursday morning, which will include a military flyover. US military guard members were photographed rehearsing for the ceremony over the weekend.

The two leaders will then hold joint talks, before Trump hosts Xi for a state dinner in the White House on Thursday evening. The visit will wrap up on Friday morning when the two presidential couples will have tea at the White House then visit the National Archives.

The White House said the visit marks "a significant milestone in the relationship between the two countries."

The meeting between the two leaders could touch on multiple points of tension, Trump telling reporters that he will be "discussing almost everything" with Xi.

The Iran war casts a particularly long shadow over the proceedings, as China seeks to avoid US sanctions against countries dealing with Tehran – despite reports that Beijing supplied Tehran with intelligence for a strike on US troops.

A trade war is of even greater concern, and the world's two largest economies are still seeking to mitigate the fallout from Trump's global tariffs. Also concerning is the potential threat of war over the island nation of Taiwan.

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Analysts, however, have tempered expectations by cautioning there might not be many concrete deals announced this week.

Preliminary talks between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng discussed creating a communication channel for AI concerns, but released little in the way of detail.

Bessent said at the time that the two sides discussed setting up a way to communicate about AI issues called the "US-China AI dialogue."

"The US has proposed that we have a notification mechanism between the two countries," Bessent said.

China's negotiating arsenal includes its dominance in the supply of rare earths, critical materials used for high-tech products that are vital to US manufacturers.

Beijing successfully pressured Washington to back down from its sky-high tariffs last year after imposing stringent controls on exports of rare earths, so it'll be interesting to see if they use this power as leverage on Taiwan, Iran, and trade.