As President Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington for a lavish state visit Thursday, lawmakers and human rights advocates say that the administration is acting overly deferential toward the communist dictator amid reports of Beijing’s providing military assistance to Iran and its continued persecution of religious believers and democracy proponents.

Reports coming out of the first day of the two-day summit indicate “grand gestures” but little substance. Xi received a red carpet welcome that included a 21-gun salute and a B-1 bomber flyover as well as an elaborate state dinner. Several Republican lawmakers expressed discomfort with the spectacle, including Senators John Cornyn (Texas), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Thom Tillis (N.C.), and others. “I think President Xi is a reptile,” remarked Senator John Kennedy (R-La.). “The president wants to work things out with him and I admire that, and I wish him luck. But I’ve met President Xi. … This man thinks he’s on a mission from God except his god is himself.”

In response to the controversy, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly insisted that the festive welcome was merely returning the favor. “President Xi hosted President Trump in China for a historic summit this summer, and President Trump is reciprocating his hospitality by welcoming the Chinese delegation for a reciprocal visit this week,” she stated.

But lawmakers like Senator Cornyn were not impressed. On Thursday, senators were notified in a classified security briefing of the “deepening military cooperation” between China and Iran, on the heels of reports earlier this month that the communist regime had provided Tehran with satellite imagery that it used to target U.S. troops in Jordan.

Cornyn remarked that it’s “pretty clear” that China is among an “axis” of rogue countries along with Russia, Iran, and North Korea that are attempting to undermine the U.S. at every turn. “I understand the importance of engagement and diplomacy but … rolling out the red carpet for President Xi, I’m not enthusiastic about that,” he emphasized.

Trade negotiations appeared to be a primary focus of the summit, with an announced agreement that the two countries would extend a truce on raising tariffs by two months. The two leaders also “discussed artificial intelligence threats,” with Xi expressing an apparent desire to avoid a “zero sum gladiatorial contest.” But experts say little progress was made on coming toward any kind of agreement on AI.

“There’s been a real attempt to try and move towards a sort of hotline between U.S. and China on this issue,” noted USC Professor David Kang, a scholar of East Asian international relations, during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Thursday. “Right now, we’re not making a whole lot of progress, and in fact, most of the summit has not made any substantive progress. Most of the issues have been kicked down the road a little bit. But I certainly would hope that we get our hands around what’s going on with AI.”

Perhaps most notable was Xi’s clear insistence that the U.S. steer clear of interfering with China’s ongoing efforts to envelope the democratic island of Taiwan, which lies just 100 miles away from mainland China across the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese dictator demanded that the U.S. “adhere to the correct position of opposing Taiwan independence.” Xi further warned that the two countries must avoid military confrontation, referring to the possibility as “the Thucydides trap.” For its part, the White House made no indication that its policy on Taiwan was changing.

Kang thinks this is unsurprising. “Taiwan probably takes this as a somewhat bad sign,” he observed. “I mean, decades of U.S. policy has been ambiguity about whether we would defend Taiwan. So Trump in his being fairly silent or ambiguous is well within normal decades of Washington foreign policy. Over the years, we’ve become a little more vocal about supporting democracy in Taiwan. But the fact remains that whether the U.S. wants to get into war with China over Taiwan is a very tricky issue, and I don’t think any president would want to come out and say definitively so.”

As for progress on human rights, which advocates have urged Trump to confront Xi over noting China’s extensive record of violations against religious believers and political dissidents, early reports indicate little progress. Reuters reported earlier this week that Trump was expected to press Xi for the release of two U.S. citizens held by Beijing, but the White House has been mum on whether appeals would be made on behalf of Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and other intensely persecuted minorities.