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In 1985, 31-year-old Xi Jinping visited the United States for the first time as secretary of the Zhengding County Committee of the Communist Party of China in Hebei Province. His trip included San Francisco and Iowa. At that time, his trip was mainly to inspect agriculture and local development.
Over the past four decades, Xi Jinping has visited the United States in various capacities, including as a local official, Vice President of China, and President of China. With the change of position, the content of the visit has gradually shifted from local exchanges and economic and trade inspections to meetings between the heads of state of China and the United States and multilateral diplomatic activities.
This Wednesday to Friday (September 23 to 25) will be Xi Jinping’s 11th official visit to the United States. Past visits have spanned multiple stages of Sino-US relations, including exchanges at the local level and high-level meetings at the White House, estates and international summits.
Through photos over the years, BBC Chinese reviews Xi Jinping's experience in visiting the United States over the past 40 years, as well as the changes in his itinerary and role in different periods.
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County magistrate goes abroad——1985
According to Chinese official media records, Xi Jinping first set foot in the United States as secretary of the Zhengding County Committee of the Communist Party of China in Hebei Province in April 1985, just six years after the Chinese Communist regime established diplomatic relations with Washington.
Xi Jinping was 31 years old at the time, and there were five people in the delegation including him: Bai Runzhang, the head of Shulu County in Hebei Province, Xia Wenyi, secretary of the Shijiazhuang Regional Foreign Affairs Office, Liu Luqing, deputy director of the Shijiazhuang Regional Science and Technology Commission, and Yu Xiqing, director of the Shijiazhuang Regional Economic Commission.
image copyrightXinhua/Alamy
But the focus of this trip was to visit Iowa (Iowa), known as the "Breadbasket of the United States". Xi Jinping and his party inspected agriculture and animal husbandry in the small town of Muscatine.
According to records from the host organization, the Iowa Sister States Committee, Xi Jinping and his party stayed in the United States for 15 days.
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image copyrightMuscatine Journal/Quad-City Times/ZUMA Wire/Alamy
image copyrightCCTV
image copyrightThe Washington Post via Getty Images
Since his trip to Muscatine, Xi Jinping visited the United States three times in 1992, 1993 and 2006. The first two times he was the Secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China in Fujian Province, and the last time he was the Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee.
National level return visit - 2012
In 2008, Xi Jinping was promoted to Vice President of China and national leader. In 2012, he made his first official visit to the United States in this capacity, which was a "return to the beginning."
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image copyrightIowa Governor's Office via Getty Images
Xi Jinping's trip lasted five days, from Washington, the capital, to Muscatine, Iowa, and then to Los Angeles, California.
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Manor Meeting Debut - 2013
From June 7 to 8, 2013, Xi Jinping visited the United States for the sixth time. The itinerary included a "manor meeting" with then-President Obama (Barack Obama) at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in California.
This year, 60-year-old Xi Jinping has just taken over as president of the country. This is the second time Xi Jinping and Obama have met in the United States, but this is the first time they have met as heads of state.
Appearance at the United Nations - 2015
After two years, Xi Jinping once again set foot on American soil, and this time it was an official state visit.
Xi Jinping's entire trip to the United States lasted seven days. Among them, September 22 to 25 was a state visit to the United States, and the following three days were transferred to the United Nations Headquarters in New York to attend a series of activities marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.
There were voices on Chinese social media criticizing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Xi Jinping seemed to have been "upstaged" by the Pope because his visit to the United States overlapped with that of the then Roman Catholic Pope Francis.
But at the same time, the fact that the two leaders were in the United States once caused observers to hope that the Chinese and Vatican heads of state could take the opportunity to meet to "break the ice," but this ultimately did not happen.
The following year, Xi Jinping returned to Washington to attend the Fourth Nuclear Security Summit.
First meeting with Trump – 2017
In January 2017, Trump took office as President of the United States for the first time. In April, Xi Jinping visited the United States for 24 hours and met with Trump at his private club Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
In the middle of the summit, Trump ordered air strikes on Syria. Such timing aroused widespread discussion.
"Xi's visit" after the epidemic - 2023
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi Jinping suspended foreign visits for nearly three years starting in 2020.
In November 2023, Xi Jinping went to San Francisco (San Francisco) to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, during which he met his "old acquaintance" Biden, who had been "promoted" to the US president.
This is also Xi Jinping’s last visit to the United States before 2026.
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