{"id":902767,"date":"2026-09-23T17:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902767\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T17:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:44:09","slug":"ai-looms-large-over-trump-xi-meeting-amid-deep-distrust-between-us-and-china-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902767\/","title":{"rendered":"AI looms large over Trump-Xi meeting amid deep distrust between US and China | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Xi Jinping, China\u2019s leader, touches down in Maryland on Wednesday, he will step out into the arms \u2013 perhaps a hug<\/a>, if Donald Trump\u2019s wishes come true \u2013 of a US president who has shown China more bonhomie than any of his recent predecessors.<\/p>\n

The meeting between Xi and Trump this week will be the second time that the leaders of the world\u2019s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. At the previous summit, held in Beijing in May, there was much talk of building a \u201cstrategic stability\u201d between the two powers. But there was little by way of concrete outcomes<\/a>: the countries remain at loggerheads over trade, export controls and geopolitics.<\/p>\n

Despite the goodwill built in May, few anticipate any major breakthroughs this week when Xi makes his first state visit to the US since 2015. \u201cExpectations are very low,\u201d said Bonnie Glaser<\/a>, a managing director at the US thinkthank the German Marshall Fund. \u201cNobody is using the term \u2018deliverables\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

One area in which Trump and Xi may reach some consensus is on artificial intelligence safety. Tech executives including Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Sam Altman of \u2060OpenAI, Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk \u200bof \u200bTesla, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jensen Huang \u200bof Nvidia will reportedly \u200battend a \u2060state dinner<\/a> at the White House on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\u2018Whoever wins AI, wins\u2019<\/p>\n

In the past few weeks, the US has been beset by worries that AI is progressing too fast<\/a>, but that the US must strive to defend its lead over China in the frontier technology \u2013 and Trump has pushed back hard against calls to slow its development. \u201cWe\u2019re leading China in AI,\u201d Trump said recently. \u201cAnd frankly, I want to \u2060keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, concluded talks with the Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng by proposing an AI safety mechanism to be established between Washington and Beijing. The mechanism appears to stop short of a major safety agreement.<\/p>\n

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, and He Lifeng, Chinese vice-premier, during trade talks in Paris, France, on 16 March. Photograph: US treasury\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s front page of the People\u2019s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese communist party (CCP), ran an article saying that the US and China<\/a> should \u201cmake AI a new frontier for China-US cooperation\u201d and \u201cmake good use of the intergovernmental dialogue mechanism on AI\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, the UN secretary general, called on the two countries to establish a dialogue on AI similar to the communication between the US and the Soviet Union during the cold war. \u201cGovernments with the greatest AI capabilities have the greatest responsibilities to humanity, to establish channels for dialogue, transparency, trust and cooperation,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n

Still, China does not agree<\/a> with US assessments about the grave threat posed by its AI developments. China\u2019s foreign ministry responded<\/a> to an essay by Dario Amodei, the Anthropic chief executive, that called for Washington to impede Beijing\u2019s progress, by saying \u201cfearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance\u201d.<\/p>\n

China has already taken steps to mandate the labelling of AI-generated content, to restrict the ability of children to use AI companions<\/a> and, in keeping with the CCP\u2019s desire to keep tight control on all information, to restrict what can be said by chatbots.<\/p>\n

China may be more concerned with what it sees as US attempts to limit is growth. Washington has for years restricted China\u2019s ability to buy the most advanced semiconductors needed for AI development, and this year the US banned the sale<\/a> of Chinese humanoid robots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amanda Hsiao, China director at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said: \u201cChina doesn\u2019t necessarily see the threat in the same way that the US does. There is a lot of distrust that\u2019s in the way of cooperation. The Chinese are inclined to think of every US call for safety standards or calls from companies for pacing the frontier as means of suppressing Chinese development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trade tensions persist<\/p>\n

Next on the agenda will be trade. Washington and Beijing struck a temporary truce in the trade war last year at a summit in South Korea. That truce \u2013 which included a pause on tariffs, as well as an agreement for Beijing to loosen restrictions on the export of rare earths \u2013 will expire in November.<\/p>\n

Beijing is hoping for a longer-term commitment to banish tariffs, which pose a threat to China\u2019s export-driven economy. But reports suggest that the US is unwilling to agree to anything that would weaken its future bargaining power.<\/p>\n

Glaser, of the German Marshall Fund, said: \u201cThe US side views this as leverage over China and ensuring that they can get deliveries of the rare earths and magnets that American companies need.\u201d<\/p>\n

China may not feel the need to negotiate, either. Despite the trade war, China\u2019s exports have surged, and it is on track to reach a $1tn trade surplus for the second year running.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is not a G2\u2019<\/p>\n

One aspect of the relationship that has shifted since May is the issue of Taiwan. After the Beijing summit, Xi secured a major concession from Trump, when he agreed to pause a $14bn package of US arms sales to Taiwan. US presidents have traditionally excluded the issue of arms sales to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory, from the US-China relationship.<\/p>\n

But Trump has described<\/a> future weapons sales as a \u201cvery good negotiating chip\u201d. The US is now reportedly<\/a> considering delaying further sales until after the Apec and G20 summits later this year, where Trump and Xi are expected to meet again.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s People\u2019s Daily article said that a stable China-US relationship would \u201cbring more peace, prosperity, and progress to the world\u201d. But for all the talk in Beijing of \u201cstrategic stability\u201d, Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, notes that \u201cthis is not a G2\u201d alliance of the world\u2019s two dominant powers.<\/p>\n

Trump and Xi Jinping tour the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, on 8 November 2017. Photograph: Andrew Harnik\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are finding a way to manage the bilateral relationship, but they are not whatsoever working together as co-stewards of the international order,\u201d Kennedy wrote<\/a> in a recent commentary.<\/p>\n

China is Iran\u2019s biggest oil buyer and trading partner. After Trump launched strikes<\/a> against Iran in February, China reportedly put pressure on Tehran<\/a> behind the scenes to come to the negotiating table. It also slashed oil imports by nearly one-quarter in the first six months of the war, limiting global inflation.<\/p>\n

Da Wei, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University, wrote in a recent essay<\/a> that this reflected \u201ca more confident China\u201d that \u201cdid not exploit the difficulties that the United States faced in the war with Iran\u201d. But Beijing has otherwise done little to resolve the crisis in the Middle East, which it sees as being a mess of Trump\u2019s making.<\/p>\n

Last month, Bessent announced an \u201ceconomic D-day\u201d against Iran and its enablers. The US treasury secretary subsequently claimed to have had \u201cvery good private discussions\u201d with Chinese officials over ending the country\u2019s economic ties with Iran.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Ukraine, Beijing has shown unwavering support for Moscow since Russia\u2019s president, Vladimir Putin, launched his full-scale invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ali Wyne<\/a>, senior research and advocacy adviser on the US and China at the International Crisis Group, said: \u201cThe contrast between the world\u2019s incumbent power and its principal challenger will be even sharper in Washington than it was in Beijing in May: while the former is mired once more in the Middle East and straining longstanding alliances, the latter is casting itself as a stabilizing counterweight and the leading champion of a more multipolar order.\u201d<\/p>\n

High vibes, low ambition<\/p>\n

The lack of momentum on thorny geopolitical issues, combined with China\u2019s emphasis on maintaining \u201cstrategic stability\u201d above all else, means that few expect there to be major breakthroughs at this week\u2019s summit.<\/p>\n

Hsiao added: \u201cIt is going to be yet another summit that is high on positive vibes and relatively low ambition in terms of substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats in Washington have urged Trump to raise concerns over China\u2019s treatment of political prisoners, but are already sounding the alarm that he could make too many concessions to Xi.<\/p>\n

Senator Tammy Duckworth told an audience<\/a> at the Center for American Progress thinktank on Tuesday: \u201cHe\u2019s not very good at making deals with the PRC [People\u2019s Republic of China] that they actually follow through on. If you look at the result of the last summit they had, they promised the purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft and $17bn in agricultural products. Neither one of those has come to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, he violated our longstanding position on Taiwan by engaging in discussions on arms sales to Taiwan with President Xi,\u201d Duckworth added. \u201cI worry that it\u2019s going to be a repeat of that and President Trump basically spends too much time sucking up to President Xi. He\u2019s very distracted. When he focuses on the Indo-Pacific, it\u2019s about him cosying up to an authoritarian regime at the expense of our friends and allies in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional research by Yu-chen Li<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Xi Jinping, China\u2019s leader, touches down in Maryland on Wednesday, he will step out into the arms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-902767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}