Washington is about to host its most-watched diplomatic event in years. Chinese President Xi Jinping lands at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday for the first state visit by a Chinese leader to the US since September 2015, when Barack Obama was in office. President Trump is doing something he rarely does: heading out to the airport to greet a foreign leader personally.

The centrepiece comes Thursday, with an indoor arrival ceremony on the White House State Floor, a troop review in the Rose Garden, then closed-door talks between the two delegations. Melania Trump will host a separate engagement with Xi's wife, Peng Liyuan, whose details remain under wraps. That evening, the East Room state dinner — roughly 1,000 guests, with both leaders speaking — is shaping up as the ticket of the season. Trump has already told friends they cannot come, and he's openly regretting that his new White House ballroom won't be finished in time.

The guest list reads like a who's who of American tech: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Google's Sundar Pichai, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Michael Dell and Tim Cook are all expected, alongside Citigroup chief Jane Fraser. Their presence signals what the visit is really about — AI, chips and trade. Before the leaders meet, Treasury Secretary Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer sit down with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York over the weekend, with artificial intelligence and China's rare earth mineral stockpiles topping the agenda. Officials have hinted some tariffs on nonstrategic goods could be eased, though export controls on rare earths look unlikely to budge.

The visit wraps next Friday with a private tea at the White House and a tour of the National Archives, timed to America's 250th anniversary celebrations, before Xi flies home.

For anyone travelling to Washington that week, expect disruption. State visits bring rolling road closures around the White House, downtown and the routes between Joint Base Andrews and the National Mall, plus heavy security footprints near the Archives and the Mall itself. Museums stay open, but give yourself extra time for everything, and check DC alerts before heading out. If you're flexible, it's a genuinely rare moment to watch state pageantry up close — the Rose Garden troop review and motorcade routes are often visible from public sidewalks.

Whether you care about the diplomacy or the spectacle, this is one of those weeks when the US capital doubles as the centre of the world.