Melania Trump hosts Peng Liyuan at Smithsonian during Xi’s state visit

US First Lady Melania Trump hosted Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington on Thursday 24 September, while Donald Trump and Xi held private talks. The museum outing followed the White House welcome ceremony for Xi’s state visit. [1] [6]

It was the women’s first public meeting since 2017, AP reported. During that earlier meeting in Beijing, they shared tea at the Palace Museum and visited a school where pupils performed songs and dances. [6]

At the Smithsonian, they viewed a notched jade disk from China’s Shang dynasty, James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room and an eighteenth-century porcelain vase from the Qianlong period, the White House said. [1]

The Peacock Room itself reflects artistic exchange: Whistler created it in 1876–77, drawing inspiration from Chinese ceramics and Japanese textiles. [4]

The programme ended with a youth choir from Hope Chinese School performing “Jasmine Flower” and “Songs & Smiles”, according to the White House. Reuters also reported the performance of “Jasmine Flower”. [1] [7]

In a statement released on 25 September, Melania Trump said art and culture could transcend borders, connect generations and deepen people’s appreciation of one another. China’s Foreign Ministry said Peng welcomed recent US returns of Chinese cultural objects and expressed hope for further cultural exchange and cooperation on heritage protection. [1] [3]

The museum had transferred two sections of the ancient Zidanku silk manuscript to China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration in May 2025, more than a year before this visit. Those sections, known as Volumes II and III, were handed over at the Chinese embassy in Washington. Volume I, then privately owned by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, was not part of that transfer.