Houston business

US leaders shared a similar desire for engagement.

"Houston has enjoyed a thriving relationship with China, going back to 1979 when Deng Xiaoping came to Houston. Today, China is our second-leading trade partner," said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.

Turner said that since his "productive" visit to China last December, there has been a surge of Chinese representatives who travel to Houston.

"We are excited by these delegations. There is a great synergy between China and Houston; this summit is another step to build a stronger relationship," he said.

US Congressman Pete Olson of Texas viewed the current differences between Washington and Beijing as "just a little friction between two countries that love each other. I agree with President Trump that we need to have trade that's fair, but I disagree with him imposing tariff after tariff".

David Firestein, founding director of the China Public Policy Center at the University of Texas in Austin, said that Trump's tweet about helping Chinese telecom-equipment maker ZTE save jobs made him the first US president to express concern about job losses in China in public.

"Our two countries are so inextricably linked in terms of scale of bilateral trade, that in reality, even if the two leaders want a trade war, there will be very profound forces in both countries that won't allow that to happen," he said.

In addition, he believes that Trump realizes that if he were to enter a full-fledged trade war with China, he would not be re-elected because his base would be suffering the most, Firestein added.

"The US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the history of the world; it will be for the lifetime of people in this room and your children."