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AI safety and US-China trade are set for Trump-Xi summit agenda
The piece says the leaders are likely to weigh an AI safety framework alongside continued disputes over the US-China trade relationship as Trump seeks to recalibrate ties.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are meeting in the United States this week for Xi’s first state visit in more than a decade, with the agenda expected to include tech safety issues and US-China trade ties, even as some topics from earlier summits may not be front and center. The outlet notes that when Xi previously met Trump in Beijing in May, AI was surprisingly absent, but now it is expected to be high on the agenda. It highlights calls for an AI safety framework to reduce the risk of advanced AI systems operating outside human control, while also describing the tension between US skepticism about safety warnings and China’s emphasis on AI as a driver of its national potential. The article also points to a potential path for cooperation, saying the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, recently suggested the two countries establish a mechanism to communicate on major AI safety issues, though a China analyst quoted in the piece raised questions about how such an approach would be operationalized and whether it would work in practice. Beyond AI, the outlet identifies trade as the biggest thorn in the relationship, noting that Trump launched a broader global trade war last year with China as the biggest target, a move that raised risks for the world economy. It frames the summit as another step in the leaders’ evolving effort to recalibrate the relationship amid those unresolved trade frictions.