Trump, Xi Seek Stability Amid AI, Trade09/22 06:18

   State visits usually occur when two countries are on warm terms, but U.S. 
President Donald Trump is hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this 
week as their economic and tech competition is only escalating, especially 
through an artificial intelligence race.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- State visits usually occur when two countries are on warm 
terms, but U.S. President Donald 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-china-state-visit-dinner-04b29a32b6a47da55a6
42d4415415d7f Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week as their 
economic and tech competition is only escalating, especially through 
https://apnews.com/article/china-us-trump-xi-meeting-ai-d08e58524de21511dcaba51f
43faad95.

   Neither expects any grand bargain, but the leaders are 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-china-relationship-ai-tariffs-iran-2716ee31a
fa579e9ca18ae76cbe35ab9 in their third meeting since Trump returned to the 
White House to try to steady fragile ties. That is despite the world's two 
largest economies 
https://apnews.com/article/china-us-ai-models-safety-concerns-adb45169d436d5f940
fc7b4ebeaeef3b developments and trade, while pushing for leverage in persistent 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-iran-oil-china-78b8ccd21cbc4bc0ab19a79f68372
ec0 and Taiwan.

   "The fact that they are meeting, and there's dialogue occurring and building 
that relationship, is probably as important as outcomes from the meeting," said 
Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who advises Trump on China and recently 
traveled there to lay groundwork for the summit.

   Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese ambassador to the U.S., said at a recent forum 
in Beijing that there are "always problems, sometimes very big problems" 
between the two countries, but "we'll make our best efforts to maintain overall 
stability."

   Trump and Xi shifted away from sky-high tariffs, but the competition is 
still intense 

   Xi's visit to Washington, which begins Wednesday, is his first in 10 years. 
He and Trump are meeting after their countries 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-china-summit-trade-tariffs-2eee658298ba8f064
fe232e8832bd2ea, where they traded tit-for-tat sky-high tariffs that 
https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/with-china-and-the-us-at-inte
nse-economic-odds-other-nations-are-being-forced-to-choose-sides/. China also 
choked off its 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-critical-minerals-defense-iran-war-china-df2b6c
0f5fdd8b26143ce332336f6489 needed in products from electric cars to fighter 
jets.

   The U.S. is not only trying to 
https://apnews.com/article/china-united-states-trump-xi-timeline-tariffs-adc2c2c
00f13d8dcd4ecc92251b11533 but also maintain its tech dominance to protect 
national security and global leadership. China, which has amassed tremendous 
economic, technological and military power over the past several years to close 
gaps with the U.S., is seeking to 
https://apnews.com/article/china-congress-legislature-closing-five-year-plan-d75
4b321c4235f619c998e9b4d03f130.

   The stability both sides are seeking is "for deeply competitive reasons," 
said Evan Medeiros, a senior adviser at The Asia Group consultancy. "This is 
basically two geopolitical strongmen circling each other on the playground, 
trying to determine what their next move may be."

   The countries appeared to be entering a "new normal" of "overall stability" 
despite 
https://apnews.com/article/china-companies-military-pentagon-us-5adea55a20302447
7e7c5204f1f650aa and restricting the flow of high-tech products, said Da Wei, 
director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua 
University in Beijing.

   The leaders now should produce deals that their governments can carry out, 
he said, noting that "we need to move fast."

   The AI race could strain any cooperation on the technology's advance 

   
https://apnews.com/article/trump-artificial-intelligence-guardrails-china-midter
ms-congress-9df0ebb4c1b0619aa0f88057b5a1092d has emerged as a key battleground, 
with both sides showing little interest in slowing down despite warnings from 
tech CEOs about 
https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-threats-humanity-anthropic-op
enai-98316b0d64de17191f33c0fbf1d37858 to humanity. "Whoever wins AI wins," 
Trump has repeatedly said.

   He claimed on social media Monday that the U.S. is leading over China and 
that he was "not going to stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than 
the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself."

   China cannot afford to lose either. In a rare, blunt essay, Chen Yixin, head 
of China's Ministry of State Security, warned that AI poses a direct threat to 
Communist Party rule if foreign and hostile forces achieve superior 
capabilities.

   The U.S. is already 
https://apnews.com/article/ai-nvidia-amd-chips-trump-controls-0e6fbdc1ad8b54d8ec
c704393c2a1558 to China and has accused Chinese developers of tapping into 
American AI models at an industrial scale to extract their capabilities.

   Beijing says 
https://apnews.com/article/us-china-ai-models-anthropic-trump-0f6ca6130163013460
7551b1dab0d632, is widely used, including by American companies, and has 
criticized the U.S. for trying to monopolize the industry.

   Beijing also is upset about U.S. efforts to build an alliance that excludes 
China, so it is 
https://apnews.com/article/china-ai-tech-chips-xi-us-df4cfc7e1b260e765b5449b6d71
a48e5 by appealing to developing nations.

   However, the U.S. and China are taking a small step to cooperate on AI.

   Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday after meeting with Chinese Vice 
Premier He Lifeng in New York that the U.S. has proposed a new 
https://apnews.com/article/bessent-ai-xi-trump-china-trade-2c7f54f07e755f506d9db
9b91df282bd that could affect national security.

   "We think that just like any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque 
to more transparency between the No. 1 and the No. 2 AI powers in the world is 
very important," Bessent said.

   US and China have turned to targeted ways to compete instead of high tariffs 

   While the U.S. and China have refrained from taking broad, punitive actions 
that would break their trade truce, they still are blacklisting individual 
companies and banning specific products.

   "What we've seen is kind of testing and probing by both sides to understand 
what can be done competitively, while still keeping that leader-level 
rapprochement on track," said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at the 
Brookings Institution's Center for Asia Policy Studies.

   The U.S. has recently targeted Chinese telecommunications and surveillance 
equipment, companies 
https://apnews.com/article/china-forced-labor-united-states-trade-8ec1637835bc93
88c84796f77f218c2c in the ethnic region of Xinjiang, as well as China's 
advanced robots and drones. The 
https://apnews.com/article/china-military-pentagon-alibaba-byd-baidu-unitree-4d6
64a6f164538b451263eafcceddaa5 Alibaba, BYD, Baidu and other major Chinese 
businesses from receiving U.S. defense contracts.

   Beijing responded with export controls on drones and related technologies as 
well as 
https://apnews.com/article/china-us-sanctions-drone-forced-labor-ad0b637298e9608
c5351bca84debeb25 over their support for the punitive measures tied to Xinjiang.

   Iran, Taiwan and tariffs are persistent issues 

   After the Supreme Court 
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-tariffs-trump-0485fcda30a7310501123e493
1dba3f9 on trade partners this year, the administration has been trying to 
impose them in other ways.

   The White House in July 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-forced-labor-8ea8114c6893a6062cf1addc35
18660b on imports from 60 trading partners, including China, ostensibly for 
failing to do enough to prevent the import of goods produced by forced labor. 
The U.S. is planning an additional 7.5% tariff on China, 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-china-xi-tariffs-manufacturing-3228ac85fefbddee
31cbb9481ec42a2a than it can reasonably consume.

   Analysts say the tariff levels are now acceptable to both sides, but any 
significant uptick could rekindle tensions.

   The Trump administration, however, has launched a 
https://apnews.com/article/iran-rial-currency-bessent-trade-august-24-2026-e3676
34d8853c8fa4a341132cd577f31 from its remaining economic partners, but Beijing 
has insisted on its right to trade with Tehran.

   So far, the Trump administration has 
https://apnews.com/article/china-iran-sanctions-trade-xi-trump-dc38c3673332a6fe3
f45c042eca83aca, partly to avoid jeopardizing the leaders' summit. But 
Washington also is losing leverage because China -- Iran's biggest oil buyer 
and its largest trading partner -- has been building up a way to make payments 
outside the U.S.-led financial system, said Alicia Garcia Herrero, an 
Asia-Pacific economist at the French investment bank Natixis.

   Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own territory, 
also remains one of the thorniest issues in U.S.-China relations. Trump 
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-taiwan-iran-trade-e7a3cdf161c608de152ac1c6e5
755452 following his May trip to Beijing, but the U.S. is obligated by a 
domestic law to provide it with sufficient hardware and technology for 
self-defense.

   Analysts say Xi will most likely press Trump to further delay arms sales to 
sow doubts in Taiwan about Washington's commitment.