With the implementation of a transmission-type curved crystal spectrometer at the Livermore high-energy electron beam ion trap (SuperEBIT) the window on sub-eV level measurements of the ground-state quantum electrodynamics and the two-electron quantum electrodynamics of high-Z ions has been opened. High-resolution spectroscopic measurements of the Kα spectra of hydrogenlike Xe[sup 53+] and heliumlike Xe[sup 52+] are presented. The electron-impact excitation cross sections have been determined relative to the radiative recombination cross sections. The electron-impact energy was 112 keV which is about 3.7 times the excitation threshold for the n=2→1 transitions. Although the relative uncertainties of the measured electron-impact excitation cross sections range from about 20% to 50%, significant disagreement between the measured and calculated cross section values has been found for one of the helium-like xenon lines. Overall, the comparison between experiment and theory shows that already for xenon (Z=54) the Breit interaction plays a significant part in the collisional excitation process. The measured cross sections for the hydrogenlike transitions are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Additionally, the Xe[sup 53+]Ly-α[sub 1] transition energy has been measured utilizing the Kα emission of neutral cesium and barium for calibration. Surprisingly, the experimental result, (31279.2±1.5) eV, disagrees with the widely accepted theoretically predicted value of (31283.77±0.09) eV. However, this disagreement does not (yet) call for any correction in respect to the theoretical values for the transition energies of the hydrogenlike isoelectronic sequence. It rather emphasizes the need for a re-evaluation of the commonly used x-ray wavelengths table for atomic inner-shell transitions, in particular, for the cesium Kα lines. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]