US President Donald Trump welcomed China President Xi Jinping to the White House for a lavish state dinner where both leaders touted a new chapter in their friendship.

The dinner was attended by billionaire business leaders, Trump administration officials, US tech CEOs and others. Their arrival was marked, however, by protesters loudly shouting from just outside the White House gates, some of whom were arrested.

Both Trump and Xi praised one another, pledging to continue talks to ensure stability between their two nations. But experts say that not much concrete has been yielded in talks so far.

The dinner came on the second day of Xi’s three-day trip to Washington.

Trump thanked Xi for making the long trip to the US, and said the relationship between the two men was strong.

“We’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said.

He praised the long history of US-China relations, although he did take an unscripted detour to praise his ongoing ballroom project.

In the off-the-cuff moment, he said as a “special treat” the Chinese leader and his wife could be the first to enter the ballroom, which is still a year away from completion.

“Anybody who wants to walk into a construction site that’s nice and clean and sparkling, it’s our honour to have you do so,” he said.

He also presented Xi with a sculpture of a bald eagle, America’s national symbol, saying it embodied “the free and soaring spirit of America”.

“We hope it will find a nice, wonderful place in Beijing. It’s your honour,” he said.

Trump added that he and First Lady Melania had participated in the design of the sculpture.

Xi thanked his hosts for receiving him and his wife with “meticulous care and consideration”, making them “feel truly at home”.

He said the two leaders are “making history in our bilateral engagements”.

“We agreed to build a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability,” Xi said, adding that the two shared “sincere and in-depth exchanges” that will strengthen relations between the two countries.

Like Trump’s, Xi’s remarks were heavy on flattery, focusing on cultural ties and shared history between the US and China.

The relationship between the two countries was “forged in blood and fire” during the fight against Japan in the Second World War, before being furthered during the “ping pong” diplomacy of the Nixon administration, he said.

Towards the end of his speech, Xi said the US and China’s goals can be “mutually reinforcing”. He urged both sides to explore a “new approach for major countries to get along”.

When the BBC entered the dining hall for the dinner, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was standing over a table and appeared to be telling an entertaining story that had two others nearby barreled over with laughter.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was at another table, with a serious look on his face. His wife is sat beside him, with Jared Kushner and White House chief of staff Monica Crowley nearby.

The White House invited scores of US officials, as well as conservative broadcasters, tech industry bosses, social media CEOs and other corporate executives.

Attendees included members of Trump’s cabinet, as well as family members like his children Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany.

Bosses from the tech industry in attendance included Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.

Both Cook and Huang were seated at the same table as Trump and Xi. As was Musk, who previously worked in Trump’s administration leading the effort to shrink government.

Other companies whose leaders were in attendance include General Motors, Visa, Paramount Skydance, ExxonMobil and more.

Social media mogul Mark Zuckerberg also attended, as well as Jeff Yaas, the American billionaire who owns a share of TikTok.

“Everybody wanted to be there,” Trump said ahead of the event. “I would say you have the entire tech world, the entire banking world, and a lot more.”

But one notable absence was Anthropic – one of the biggest and most valuable AI firms in the world. The BBC has asked Anthropic if it was invited, or if they chose not to be there.

The office of the First Lady Melania Trump, which planned the event, said the dinner menu would showcase “American ingredients with subtle Chinese influence”.

For their first course guests enjoyed yellow squash, wild mushrooms and crispy pancetta. The ate off red tablecloths – red being a symbol of luck and good fortune in China.

For their main course they dined on a sesame-crusted sea bass, braised bok choy and roasted eggplant.

Dessert featured the two leaders and their fellow diners tucking into vanilla crémeux with sour cherry confit, with an accompanying ice cream “made with harvested White House honey”.

The wine chosen by the first lady included Schramsberg Blanc De Noir – a nod to President Nixon’s 1972 “Toast to Peace” with former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, when they used a bottle from the same vineyard.

Trump and Xi will begin their day with tea at the White House’s Red Room with their wives.

The group then head to the US National Archives for a tour of the building and its exhibits.

Formally called the National Archives and Records Administration, the building holds some of the most important documents regarding the founding of the United States – including the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

Xi and his wife will depart Washington later in the day.