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2026 Xi-Trump summits
EconomyGlobal Economy

China’s AI ascent leaves Trump a stark choice: escalate or relax chip controls?

Beijing and Washington are locked in an era-defining contest – and China’s rapid technological progress raises questions about limits of containment

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Illustration: Henry Wong
Ann Caoin ShanghaiandJi Siqiin Beijing

US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In this story, part of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we examine how artificial intelligence (AI), chip controls and competing technology ecosystems are redefining US-China rivalry.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was the undisputed centre of attention at a 1,000-guest banquet in the heart of Beijing in July last year, attended by Chinese government officials, diplomats, businesspeople and industrial leaders.

Barely managing a few bites of his dinner, he breezed through a marathon of media interviews and accepted a stream of selfie requests from guests. The rock star treatment even spilled into the hotel lobby when he left, where Huang patiently signed autographs for star-struck fans.

The excitement was clear and perhaps understandable: Huang had arrived in Beijing with news that Nvidia’s H20 chip had just been cleared for export to the Chinese market. A watered-down version of Nvidia’s cutting-edge AI chips, the H20 still outperformed many Chinese rivals and, with tech giants in the world’s second-largest economy locked into Nvidia’s ecosystem, it appeared Washington had all but secured the company’s long-held dominance.
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