US, Chinese officials talk trade, AI ahead of Xi visit

The stage is set for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to meet this week, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had a “very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI” on Sunday.

Officials picked up where they “left off in Beijing,” Bessent said, and discussed AI and how to “operationalize” the Board of Trade ahead of Xi’s arrival in Washington Wednesday.

They specifically discussed standing up a formal dialogue for the US and China on AI, Bessent said, and made plans to meet again.

He added that the US proposed a US-China “notification mechanism” for AI incidents that pose threats to national security, which would include a “shared vision” of “common threats.”

On trade, the countries are weighing which “relatively small subset” of goods could be considered by the Board of Trade rather than through a national security review, Greer said, pointing to consumer goods; “low-tech” items; energy-related products; agricultural goods; and medical devices.