AI fight shadows final preparations for Xi Jinping’s White House visit to meet Donald Trump

Washington and Beijing are discussing the possibility of folding a long-awaited AI dialogue into a broader economic meeting in the days before Xi meets US President Donald Trump, according to several people familiar with the arrangements.

The two leaders agreed in Beijing in May to launch an intergovernmental dialogue on AI. For months, that channel was treated separately from the trade talks led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng, with both sides struggling to make progress in the dialogue.

Sources now say Bessent is expected to handle the two issues in one meeting. Bessent is the American lead on both the AI talks with Beijing and the economic talks. The sources said that holding a second high-level meeting so close to the summit was becoming difficult to arrange.

Development of AI in China has always been part of He’s portfolio, as the Chinese vice-premier is in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s powerful economic planning agency overseeing industrial development in the country, including AI.