Donald Trump hit back at Xi Jinping’s claims that America is a “declining nation”, blaming Joe Biden for the state of the country as he concluded an historic trip to China with no major breakthroughs.
The U.S. president accepted that “tremendous damage” had been done to the country, but suggested Xi had referred only to the United States under the Biden administration in any criticism.
“On that score, he was 100% correct,” he wrote on social media late on Thursday. “Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!”
“Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi!” he added. “But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”
Xi welcomed the U.S. delegation with pageantry and ceremony, but also alluded to the challenge of avoiding confrontation for rising and established powers.
“Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?” he posited in his opening remarks on Thursday, referring to the ancient conflict between Sparta and an ascending Athens.
Xi had said previously, within weeks of Biden taking office, that “the East is rising and the West is declining”, casting the United States as “the biggest source of chaos in the present-day world”.
During Trump’s visit, he warned Washington that missteps on the issue of Taiwan could also lead the two superpowers towards conflict.
Trump came away from his visit to China, the first for a U.S. president in almost a decade, with no major breakthroughs on trade or priorities raised before the summit, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host and trying to influence China towards new commitments.
While the president searched for immediate business wins such as a deal to sell Boeing jets that did not impress investors, Xi talked up a long-term reset and pact to maintain stable trade ties with Washington, underscoring their differing priorities.
Trump also left without official resolution to the rare earths supply problem that has dogged ties since China imposed export controls on the vital minerals in response to Trump’s tariff barrage in April 2025. In two days of summit coverage, Chinese state media did not mention the issue once.
Trump separately raised the issue of the detention of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, according to his secretary of state, but there was no evidence Beijing had changed its stance. China’s foreign ministry yielded no ground ahead of the summit, saying their position on Lai had already been stated many times.
Washington had been expected to urge Beijing to use its leverage with Iran to make a deal. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the U.S.
Xi did not comment on his discussions with Trump about Iran, although China’s foreign ministry issued a blunt statement outlining Beijing’s frustration with the Iran war.
“This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to continue,” the ministry said.
