appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Nayan Seth

The United States and China agreed to establish a dialogue on artificial intelligence and put into operation a bilateral trade body following eight hours of negotiations in New York, just days before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the outcomes after meeting Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng at JPMorgan’s headquarters.
“We had a very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI,” Bessent said.
Greer added that the negotiations had turned earlier ideas of a Board of Trade and AI talks into concrete initiatives.
“We started in Beijing with notions on a Board of Trade and AI dialogue. Today, those notions have become reality.” He added that the effort was aimed at “helping President Trump and President Xi continue their relationship”.
“What matters today is that we are preparing the groundwork so that when President Xi comes to Washington on Thursday, President Trump and President Xi will be able to have a successful summit,” Greer said.
The Chinese delegation did not speak to the media.

The SCMP reported last month that the Board of Trade was likely to be operationalised during Xi’s visit, even as discussions on the investment forum remained stalled.
On AI dialogue, the Treasury secretary said they had proposed a “notification mechanism” between the two countries, and sought a “shared vision of common goals and common threats”.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The AI channel has struggled to make progress because the two sides differ over the meeting’s agenda and scope. The US side wanted to focus narrowly on AI safety and the technology’s risks, while China sought a broader conversation on global AI governance.
In the run-up to the Bessent-He meeting, Washington has repeatedly criticised Beijing for allowing Chinese AI companies to distil technology from US models, raising concerns over the use of American AI systems to accelerate their own development.
“One of the ways we can push back against China, because the Chinese models distil from the US models, which is a polite scientific word for steal,” Bessent said on Tuesday.
“As a person who manages the relationship with China on AI, it matters a great deal.”

Model distillation is a widely used AI training technique in which a smaller model learns from the output of larger ones.
The Chinese embassy in Washington earlier rejected the US allegations, terming distillation “a common technical practice used by AI developers worldwide, including US companies”.
As Chinese companies have closed the gap with US firms in frontier AI models, US firms and Trump administration officials have increasingly accused Beijing of using American technology to accelerate the development of its own AI systems.
On the operationalisation of the US-China Board of Trade , Greer said teams from both sides were still working to finalise a list of goods that could be traded separately from future trade measures.
“The teams right now upstairs are continuing to work through this to see if they can find some critical mass of goods,” he said, describing them as “non-sensitive” goods that could be traded “in a balanced way” to create “a kind of ballast for the relationship”.
“We expect that the types of goods you’ll see in those lists are consumer goods, low-tech items coming in from the Chinese side, on the US side, energy products, agricultural goods, potentially medical devices, and other things like that.”
They did not announce any update on the extension of the Busan trade deal, but Greer said that “US export controls were not on the agenda”.
The SCMP previously reported that the bilateral trade truce agreed by Xi and Trump in Busan, South Korea in October 2025 was likely to be extended, though Washington was not expected to push for a breakthrough at the coming meeting.

At the time, the two sides agreed on a package deal that included lower US tariffs on some Chinese goods, a suspension of additional US restrictions on Chinese-affiliated companies, a one-year pause on certain Chinese rare earth export controls, and Chinese commitments on US soybeans and fentanyl precursors.
On Friday, the White House raised concerns over the flow of rare earths from China and said it would be a part of Sunday’s discussion.
“China’s performance in that respect has not been up to par of what we would expect,” a senior White House official said.
The creation of the Board of Trade was also announced in May following Trump’s visit to Beijing, alongside a new Board of Investment, as mechanisms for managing business ties between the world’s two largest economies.
Under the trade mechanism, both sides are selecting non-sensitive sectors and products eligible for a tariff-reduced trade capped at US$30 billion for each side.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also held a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Wang Yi stressed that the two sides should act in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit” and “make good preparations for high-level engagement in the next stage,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on social media.
Wang also called on the two sides to “send a positive message that China and the United States are committed to advancing a constructive relationship of strategic stability and jointly promoting world peace and development”.


Chinese province urges firms to seize the day as Xi-Trump meeting provides trade stability

US announces AI dialogue with China, launches Board of Trade

China elevates Li Chenggang to top international trade role ahead of Xi’s US trip

Boeing’s 200-jet China deal could hinge on Trump-Xi talks: industry insiders

2026 Xi-Trump summits

Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng arrives to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at JPMorgan Chase’s global corporate headquarters in New York on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Bessent and He shake hands ahead of their talks on Sunday. Photo: Xinhua

Scott Bessent said it was a “very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI”. Photo: AFP

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping talk after a summit in Busan, South Korea on October 30. Photo: Reuters

The Chinese delegation arrives for Sunday’s meeting in New York. Photo: AFP

Rare honour: Trump will greet Xi at Joint Base Andrews, not just White House

Chinese President Xi Jinping participates in a welcome ceremony for US President Donald Trump at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. Photo: AP

A screenshot from a video posted to the X account of US first lady Melania Trump shows a welcome sheet bearing the name of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan. Image: @FLOTUS/X

China’s Wang Yi holds phone call with Rubio days before Xi visits US

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Germany in February. Photo: Reuters

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng meet in Seoul, South Korea on May 13. The pair will meet again this weekend for preparatory talks before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington next week. Photo: Keystone via AP

BYD, Xiaomi and Innolight executives likely to join Xi Jinping on US visit: sources

US President Donald Trump talks with President Xi Jinping at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing on May 15. Photo: AP

US President Donald Trump walks with President Xi Jinping upon arrival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14. Photo: Reuters

China, US may unveil measures to boost military ties when Xi visits Washington

The US and China are discussing ways to strengthen military links – a rare bright spot in the relationship. Photo: Reuters

Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister (seen in March), spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. Photo: dpa

Admiral Samuel Paparo and General Yang Zhibin meet on the sidelines of an Indo-Pacific defence conference in Victoria, Canada on August 31. Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryan D. McLearnon

General Zhang Shengmin is now the only uniformed official in the Central Military Commission. Photo: Reuters

US announces AI dialogue with China, launches Board of Trade

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Key outcomes released after eight-hour marathon meeting in New York

Key outcomes released after eight-hour marathon meeting in New York