In fact this is a huge disrespect to Obama. They didn’t even roll out stairs for AF1 when he landed. Trump gets the royal treatment. Dealing with China like a Boss. They know the US is the preeminent power in the world and for President Trump to treat them as equals or near-equals and to seek their partnership in areas of mutual interest is a great honor.
“In fact this is a huge disrespect to Obama. “
Nothing to do with Obama or Trump. It is about Xi.
Chinese Communists have never hosted anyone there. In fact they purposely would not. They formerly would have such a dinner, as with Reagan, at the Great a Hall of the People.
This is for internal Chinese consumption and the symbolism of Xi, after recently consolidating power in the Communist state, and the symbolism of a Communist Chinese leader holding a State dinner in the Imperial Palace for the first time ever rather than in the Great Hall of the People is not lost on the Chinese public.