Trump and Xi Close Washington Summit Without Major AI Deal

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping concluded a three-day state visit in Washington on Friday without reaching a major agreement on artificial intelligence, instead extending a bilateral trade truce by two months and agreeing to set up a channel for AI safety communication.¹²³

Trade and safety measures

Beijing committed to purchasing a minimum of 10 million metric tons of American coal across 2027 and 2028, while both sides kept talking through US worries over rare earths supplies, with the White House saying the aim was "ensuring shipment levels return to appropriate levels."¹²³

Beijing and Washington said most of the tariff reduction, covering roughly $30 billion of goods, targeted non-sensitive items such as agricultural products and holiday decorations. The two nations also agreed to accelerate work on military crisis communications, according to Beijing, and established a Board of Investment.²³

On artificial intelligence, the two sides confirmed they would set up a communication channel for AI safety incidents, with a further round of AI-focused dialogue due in November. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said, "Artificial intelligence technologies are continuously developing, all parties can strengthen exchanges, discuss in-depth and seek consensus in light of the latest situation."²³

Criticism of a missed opportunity

According to the Guardian, Trump and Xi drew criticism for missing an opportunity to halt an AI arms race between the two nations, as the three-day visit leaned toward spectacle and personal chemistry instead of concrete outcomes. The same report cited warnings that AI could threaten humanity's very existence, noting that neither nation showed much willingness to make even a token move toward slowing AI's advance.¹

Congressman Ro Khanna said Trump could have established technical working groups and a framework involving Chinese and US AI companies, and said he believed Xi would have agreed to at least some technical working groups. Jonathan Czin agreed that an opportunity had been missed, saying the meeting delivered "theatre of the absurd" rather than meeting the moment, and that neither leader seemed to want to slow down on AI. Czin added that his expectations for substance had been low but the meeting underwhelmed even those.¹

Trump said the summit had produced "great strides" and that farmers were going to be happy, though he did not provide details for that statement. In a social media post, Trump noted that Xi seemed partial to the phrase 'super intelligence,' while Trump has repeatedly insisted the US needs to keep pushing forward so it doesn't fall behind China. The Guardian reported that China is targeting over 90% market penetration for next-generation smart devices and AI agents by 2030.¹

Ceremony and access

According to the Guardian, this marked Xi's second state visit to America and the first time in over ten years that a Chinese president had visited the White House. Departing from convention, Trump arranged a red-carpet reception for Xi at Joint Base Andrews and then led him on a tour of the White House that took in a gallery of past presidents, an under-construction ballroom and a helicopter pad.¹

During a stop at the National Archives, the two leaders examined the founding Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, with Trump telling reporters the pair were drawing comparisons between Chinese documents and these American originals. The two leaders were feted by Trump and the First Lady at a black-tie state dinner, which top tech executives attended, according to the Guardian. Bernie Sanders labelled a photo of the dinner table with guests' net worth, listing Elon Musk at $928bn, Jensen Huang at $186bn, Lisa Su at $3.5bn and Tim Cook at $3.1bn; Chinese tech industry counterparts were not present, according to the same report.¹

The Guardian further noted that Trump's move a week earlier to exclude CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House had triggered litigation, and that although Chinese state-run outlets were granted access to the grounds on Thursday, journalists from America's independent press were at first shut out before eventually being let in. Unlike Trump's May visit to Beijing, the two leaders did not hold a joint press conference.¹

Wider agenda

The Guardian reported that the leaders' conversations touched on the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine as well as Taiwan's status, and while Trump confirmed Iran had come up, he did not describe any significant breakthroughs. Per Euronews, the two held a private 90-minute session that, per Beijing's official summary, covered the Middle East, Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula.¹³⁴

Xi conceded that Washington and Beijing bear a joint duty to steer AI's development toward beneficial ends and to keep it under human oversight at all times. Trump described the relationship with Xi as "a truly great friendship" and, separately, called it "one of Friendship, Strength, and Success," while Xi spoke of pursuing "strategic stability on the basis of respect, fairness, and reciprocity."¹²³

The pair have two further meetings planned this year, with Trump anticipated at China's APEC summit in Shenzhen in November and Xi due in the US in December for a G20 gathering at Trump's Doral golf resort in Florida. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the trade truce would remain in effect until January.²³