President Donald Trump said artificial intelligence — which he has begun calling “Super Intelligence” — will be a major subject of his White House talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two countries extend their trade truce through Jan. 10 while continuing negotiations over technology, critical minerals, Taiwan and other disputes.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that artificial intelligence will be a major focus of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, placing rapidly advancing AI technology alongside trade and national security as Washington and Beijing seek to manage competition between the world’s two largest economies.
“A big day with President Xi of China. Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China’s position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ!” Trump posted Thursday morning.
Reuters confirmed that Trump was using “Super Intelligence” as his preferred term for artificial intelligence and said the president’s remarks indicated he was not seeking a major new restriction on AI development during the summit.
Trump has increasingly promoted rapid expansion of the American AI industry, backing new data centers and technological development while criticizing proposals to substantially slow the technology’s progress.
During his United Nations address Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. government would use the term “super intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence” and argued that Washington should not restrain a technology he said could become “bigger than the Industrial Revolution.”
He has also dismissed some of the warnings surrounding AI safety and argued that existing American law-enforcement authorities can intervene when companies cross legal boundaries.
That position was reflected in Thursday’s statement that “Our guardrail is the DOJ!”
Trump said last week that the United States already possesses legal mechanisms to regulate and prosecute AI companies when necessary, while arguing that slowing development could undermine the country’s competitive position against China.
The subject has taken on greater significance because the United States and China are currently the two principal competitors in advanced AI development.
Ahead of the Trump-Xi summit, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng discussed creating a bilateral mechanism through which the countries could communicate about serious AI incidents involving national security.
Bessent proposed a notification system designed to increase transparency when AI-related events rise to a national-security level. The two governments have also agreed to continue AI discussions, including possible communication procedures involving major safety incidents.
“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent said after the talks.
The discussions could eventually expand into subjects including AI weaponization, protection of critical infrastructure, cyberattacks and the behavior of powerful autonomous systems, although significant differences remain between Washington and Beijing over technology policy.
Trump and Xi first discussed possible consultations over AI development during their May meeting in Beijing, but a formal forum was not established at that time.
The AI talks come as Xi attends a three-day state visit to Washington. Trump personally greeted the Chinese leader and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday before Thursday’s White House meetings.
Xi’s arrival marked his first visit to Washington in more than a decade. Trump’s airport greeting was also unusual: Reuters reported that a U.S. president had not personally welcomed a foreign leader at Joint Base Andrews in 11 years.
Trump and Xi participated Thursday in an elaborate White House arrival ceremony and military review before beginning their talks.
The summit follows an important development on trade.
Bessent announced Wednesday that the United States and China agreed to extend the existing “Busan Agreement” through Jan. 10, moving back a Nov. 10 deadline that otherwise could have renewed economic tensions between the countries.
“We met today to see if we could do a bigger deal as opposed to just a series of smaller things. We have agreed today that we will extend what we call the Busan Agreement,” Bessent said, adding that it would remain in effect until Jan. 10.
The additional two months give both governments more time to negotiate unresolved disputes and determine whether the existing truce can become the foundation for a broader economic agreement.
The Busan arrangement emerged from Trump and Xi’s October 2025 meeting in South Korea after escalating tariffs and retaliatory measures pushed bilateral tariff rates above 100% at the height of the confrontation. The agreement suspended or rolled back a number of measures while negotiators continued talks.
Under the arrangement, China suspended retaliatory tariffs affecting a range of American agricultural products, made commitments involving additional U.S. purchases and paused certain export controls involving rare earth minerals.
The United States similarly suspended or reduced some trade restrictions and tariff measures.
The agreement lowered tensions without resolving the structural disputes that produced the confrontation.
Rare earths remain one of those unresolved issues.
American officials have said Chinese deliveries of critical minerals and magnets have fallen short of commitments made under the existing arrangement. Rare earth materials are essential to products ranging from automobiles and electronics to military equipment.
Bessent acknowledged ahead of the summit that implementation had not been complete, saying some Chinese commitments under the truce had not been fully carried out.
The United States and China are also working through what U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has called a “Board of Trade” process aimed at identifying categories of nonstrategic products on which reciprocal tariffs could be reduced.
Potential Chinese goods include consumer products and lower-technology items, while possible American exports include energy, agricultural products and medical devices. Greer has said the process is intended to identify a relatively small category of goods that can be traded more freely without implicating sensitive national-security concerns.
American officials have also been seeking increased Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural goods.
Negotiators had not resolved earlier Chinese commitments involving increased American agricultural purchases or the purchase of more than 200 Boeing aircraft as of talks preceding the summit.
The Trump-Xi discussions extend well beyond economics and AI.
Taiwan remains one of the most contentious issues in the U.S.-China relationship.
Beijing considers democratically governed Taiwan part of China under its “one-China principle,” although the Chinese Communist government has never ruled the island. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
The United States maintains its own “one-China policy,” which differs from Beijing’s principle, while maintaining unofficial relations with Taipei and supplying Taiwan with defensive weapons under the Taiwan Relations Act.
China has pressed Washington to reduce military and diplomatic support for Taiwan and warned in May that mishandling the issue could produce “clashes and even conflicts.”
The Trump administration has not announced a fundamental change in longstanding U.S. policy.
In December 2025, Washington announced an $11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan, the largest U.S. weapons package ever announced for the island. The proposed sales included HIMARS rocket systems, howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, drones and other equipment.
China responded Dec. 26 by sanctioning 20 U.S. defense companies and 10 executives. The measures included asset freezes, restrictions on dealings with Chinese organizations and entry bans for the targeted individuals.
One of the sanctioned executives, Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey, mocked the action and the prospect that Beijing could seize his “non-existent Chinese assets.”
China’s relationship with Iran is another source of tension.
Some lawmakers have urged Trump to challenge Xi over Beijing’s economic and strategic ties with Tehran as the United States remains engaged in conflict with Iran.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, raised the issue during a Senate floor speech Tuesday.
“The president might inquire about the purposes of China’s massive military build-up or about China’s clear support for Iran,” Wicker said.
“This summer, it was all over the press that China gave Iran satellite imagery intelligence, and that intelligence led to the death of American troops.”
Wicker’s allegation concerning Chinese support for Iran was part of his argument for confronting Xi over security issues. His office also cited religious persecution and what he described as international coercion by the Chinese Communist Party.
Wicker called Xi “a brutal, unelected, and oppressive dictator” and urged Trump not to allow ceremonial diplomacy to overshadow disagreements with Beijing.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended direct presidential engagement with Xi despite those disputes.
“The idea that we would not interact with them at the highest levels is irresponsible. It’s outrageous. We have to,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t have strong disagreements. Of course we do. But even at the height of the Cold War, even in the midst of the threat of nuclear annihilation and life ending on the Earth, the United States had communications and meetings often with Russian officials,” he said.
Rubio described continued leader-to-leader communication as necessary because the United States and China are the world’s two largest economies and possess two of its most powerful militaries.
American lawmakers have also urged Trump to raise human rights concerns and the cases of Americans detained in China, along with prisoners including Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, has urged Trump to address those issues as well as Chinese support for Russia and Iran.
Moolenaar also criticized Beijing’s conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CCP “completely shut things down to save face,” Moolenaar told The Epoch Times.
“A lot of people died because they were not forthcoming and transparent,” he said.
Those remarks represented Moolenaar’s assessment of Beijing’s pandemic conduct.
Referring to the Trump-Xi summit, Moolenaar said he has “limited expectations on what would come out of this.”
He said he wants Trump to push China to fulfill agricultural purchase commitments, address fentanyl trafficking and resist providing assistance to Russia and Iran.
Chinese industrial capacity is another concern raised by lawmakers.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, argued that China’s manufacturing system is producing considerably more than its domestic market can absorb, potentially directing large quantities of inexpensive exports toward foreign markets.
“I think he knows he has a massive capacity problem, and he needs to figure out a way to cut his domestic capacity,” Moreno said.
“In America, we make about 10 million cars. China makes almost 38 million, and their domestic market is going down 25 percent. So you can imagine, the amount of excess capacity is absurd. So he’s got to come to a reckoning.”
Trump and Xi therefore entered Thursday’s talks with the immediate trade confrontation temporarily contained but many larger disputes unresolved.
The Busan Agreement will now remain in place until Jan. 10, allowing negotiators more time to address tariffs, agricultural purchases, rare earth supplies and other economic issues.
At the same time, artificial intelligence has moved toward the center of the relationship.
Washington has proposed establishing more reliable communication with Beijing when AI incidents threaten national security, while Trump has made clear that he opposes using those concerns as justification for broadly slowing American AI development.
His Thursday message distilled that position as he prepared to meet Xi: “Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is.”
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