For the first time in nearly a decade, a sitting American president is traveling to China.

The two most powerful men in the world are meeting in Beijing.

And yes, while tensions between the United States and China have been simmering for a while now

over everything from tariffs to Taiwan, Donald Trump seems to admire his Chinese counterpart.

I have a great relationship with President Xi.

He's described him as a smart and fierce man in the past.

An amazing man.

And when I say that, the press always says,

oh, that's terrible that he called him.

He runs 1.4 billion people with a pretty iron fist.

As Trump says, an iron fist.

She's a leader who's consolidated his power and is purging military elites in China in an effort,

he says, to root out corruption.

Well, here's the news. China has purged several generals.

Beijing says they were corrupt.

President Xi has carried out a campaign to purge the

People's Liberation Army of those he perceives as disloyal. This is a great demonstration of

Xi's judgment about who belongs in the military. It's in this context that Donald Trump

and Xi Jinping are meeting face to face.

From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in London.

And I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.

And today on the global story,

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