Oval Office talks and artificial intelligence

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met for approximately 90 minutes in the Oval Office on Thursday, 24 September. Artificial intelligence formed a central topic of the bilateral exchange. In the meeting, Xi proposed maintaining continuous communication regarding the risks and benefits of the technology, arguing that autonomous systems must stay under human supervision to avoid misuse. Hours prior to the talks, Trump posted on Truth Social that super intelligence would be discussed, adding that he wanted to leave the technology where it is with the Department of Justice serving as a guardrail. This followed Trump's address on Tuesday to the UN General Assembly, where he stated that the United States would encourage AI development and reject global control mechanisms.

“Both China and the United States are leading nations in artificial intelligence. We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people.”

Trade tariffs and weapons for Taiwan

Bilateral negotiations also covered trade measures and regional security matters. The existing truce in the US-China tariff dispute was extended only until January, requiring the two governments to resume negotiations earlier than Beijing had desired. On Taiwan, which Chinese officials identified as an urgent priority following calls against Taiwanese independence, Trump chose to postpone approval of a new US weapons package. Trump described the withheld arms package as a bargaining chip in bilateral diplomacy. Meanwhile, US restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors to China remained in place, directly affecting access to hardware such as processors manufactured by Nvidia.

Technology executives at the White House dinner

A Thursday evening state dinner at the White House assembled senior cabinet officials and prominent figures from the corporate technology sector. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was seated at the head table to the right of First Lady Melania Trump, alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Additional dinner guests included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI executives Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault. The dinner featured sesame-crusted sea bass, bok choy, roasted eggplant, and butternut squash soup with pancetta, followed by walnut frangipane and White House honey ice cream. Trump also invited guests to tour the ongoing construction of a new White House ballroom, scheduled for completion in about one year.

“President Xi and I understand that we represent different systems, but the ties between our people remain, and we have never gotten along better.”

Bilateral calendar and upcoming summits

Xi concluded his visit to Washington on Friday, 25 September, marking his first state visit to the US capital since 2015. Although no formal joint security agreement on AI was made public by Friday morning, both governments left open future diplomatic engagements. The two leaders are positioned to meet again at the APEC summit in China in November, followed by the G20 summit in Florida in December.