US, China Considering Official AI Dialogue to Prevent Tech Race from Igniting Crisis
The U.S. and China are reportedly considering launching official dialogues on artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent their intensifying AI competition from escalating into a crisis. This could be placed on the agenda for the upcoming summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping.
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- 📰 Published: May 7, 2026 at 14:43
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- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 8, 2026 at 00:46 (9h 45m after Collected)
Central News Agency
(Central News Agency, Washington, 6th, Comprehensive Foreign Report) The "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) reported that Washington and Beijing are considering launching official dialogues on artificial intelligence (AI). Informed sources point out that as the AI competition between the two sides intensifies, it may evolve into a new arms race in the digital age.
This discussion comes as U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold a summit in Beijing next week, and the U.S. and China are considering including AI issues on the summit agenda.
If an official AI dialogue mechanism is formally established, it will represent the first official contact between the U.S. and China on AI during the Trump administration, also indicating that both sides realize that the race to develop more powerful AI models could trigger a crisis that neither country can handle.
Sources close to the matter stated that the U.S. and China are currently envisioning a regular dialogue mechanism to discuss risks such as out-of-control AI models, autonomous military systems, and attacks by non-state actors using powerful open-source tools.
Sources familiar with the U.S. position revealed that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is currently leading the AI issue negotiations, and the U.S. is waiting for Beijing to designate its counterpart official. Sources close to China indicated that Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min has participated in discussions with Washington regarding the establishment of such a dialogue.
Whether AI issues will be formally included on the summit agenda for May 14-15 will ultimately be decided by Trump and Xi Jinping.
Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said that China is prepared to conduct communication on AI risk management.
Beyond governments, some private analysts have begun to discuss what outcomes such dialogues might ultimately produce, and whether more specific crisis management mechanisms could be established. The U.S. and China currently have military hotlines and other crisis communication channels, but Beijing is often reluctant to use them.
Rush Doshi, a scholar at Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out that Chinese officials did not answer hotline calls during the 2001 collision of a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance plane with a Chinese fighter jet, or during the 2023 flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Doshi, who served as the National Security Council's China director during the Biden administration, said: "The fundamental problem is not whether a hotline has been established, but whether China is willing to use it. Historically, they usually don't."
High-level U.S. and Chinese officials have interacted on AI issues. In November 2023, Biden and Xi Jinping formally launched the U.S.-China AI dialogue mechanism during their summit in California. Doshi said that at the time, the Biden administration had two major goals: to establish regular dialogues and reach consensus, and to prevent AI from interfering with nuclear command and control systems.
In 2024, the U.S. and China jointly announced that the authority to launch nuclear weapons would remain in human hands, rather than being decided by AI.
However, the outcomes of this dialogue did not meet expectations. Doshi stated that Beijing's Foreign Ministry, rather than technical agencies like the Ministry of Science and Technology, led the negotiations, limiting the content of substantive exchanges.
He said: "If China truly values dialogue, I think they should designate the people who understand the technology best to play a core role in their delegation, just like us."
AI is now once again elevated to presidential-level discussions, spanning two different U.S. administrations, reflecting that both sides have long recognized that AI poses a common strategic risk requiring direct high-level attention.
In 2023, around the time of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's centennial, Xi Jinping invited him to visit Beijing.
During the Cold War, few Americans had such a profound influence on China as Kissinger. His secret visit to China paved the way for President Nixon's 1972 visit and the normalization of U.S.-China relations.
Robert Hormats, who served as Kissinger's senior economic advisor, pointed out that Kissinger accepted the invitation hoping to confirm that AI issues would be included in the discussions.
Hormats recalled: "The Chinese side agreed." Xi Jinping and Kissinger discussed the necessity of establishing long-term AI dialogues, including regulatory issues and common security challenges.
Since then, relevant exchanges have developed into a continuous unofficial AI dialogue channel, led on the U.S. side by former Microsoft Chief Research Officer Craig Mundie, and on the Chinese side including Tsinghua University and representatives from multiple Chinese AI model companies.
Anja Manuel, Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, who participated in the unofficial AI dialogue, stated that current discussions focus on advanced model safety and how to design "guardrail" systems to ensure AI, even as its capabilities grow stronger, still adheres to human laws and intentions.
She said: "AI is becoming the operating system of global commerce, and it's almost impossible to discuss trade with China without discussing AI."
Myron Brilliant, a senior trade expert who recently met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and others, said that China is willing to discuss AI security with the U.S.
He quoted China as saying: "We will certainly compete vigorously with the United States, but we also see the importance of preventing global impact and cyber abuse, and therefore are willing to engage in dialogue on security agreements, technical safeguards, and governance, as long as the U.S. government is willing."
Today, internal discussions in the U.S. and China on the framework for AI competition increasingly resemble Cold War thinking, i.e., maintaining strategic stability through dialogue while competing with each other.
Manuel said: "We successfully did this with Russia in the past. At least the people dealing with nuclear security knew each other and understood each other's thinking." (Compiled by: Hsu Rui-cheng) 1150507
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(Central News Agency, Washington, 6th, Comprehensive Foreign Report) The "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) reported that Washington and Beijing are considering launching official dialogues on artificial intelligence (AI). Informed sources point out that as the AI competition between the two sides intensifies, it may evolve into a new arms race in the digital age.
This discussion comes as U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold a summit in Beijing next week, and the U.S. and China are considering including AI issues on the summit agenda.
If an official AI dialogue mechanism is formally established, it will represent the first official contact between the U.S. and China on AI during the Trump administration, also indicating that both sides realize that the race to develop more powerful AI models could trigger a crisis that neither country can handle.
Sources close to the matter stated that the U.S. and China are currently envisioning a regular dialogue mechanism to discuss risks such as out-of-control AI models, autonomous military systems, and attacks by non-state actors using powerful open-source tools.
Sources familiar with the U.S. position revealed that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is currently leading the AI issue negotiations, and the U.S. is waiting for Beijing to designate its counterpart official. Sources close to China indicated that Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min has participated in discussions with Washington regarding the establishment of such a dialogue.
Whether AI issues will be formally included on the summit agenda for May 14-15 will ultimately be decided by Trump and Xi Jinping.
Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said that China is prepared to conduct communication on AI risk management.
Beyond governments, some private analysts have begun to discuss what outcomes such dialogues might ultimately produce, and whether more specific crisis management mechanisms could be established. The U.S. and China currently have military hotlines and other crisis communication channels, but Beijing is often reluctant to use them.
Rush Doshi, a scholar at Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out that Chinese officials did not answer hotline calls during the 2001 collision of a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance plane with a Chinese fighter jet, or during the 2023 flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Doshi, who served as the National Security Council's China director during the Biden administration, said: "The fundamental problem is not whether a hotline has been established, but whether China is willing to use it. Historically, they usually don't."
High-level U.S. and Chinese officials have interacted on AI issues. In November 2023, Biden and Xi Jinping formally launched the U.S.-China AI dialogue mechanism during their summit in California. Doshi said that at the time, the Biden administration had two major goals: to establish regular dialogues and reach consensus, and to prevent AI from interfering with nuclear command and control systems.
In 2024, the U.S. and China jointly announced that the authority to launch nuclear weapons would remain in human hands, rather than being decided by AI.
However, the outcomes of this dialogue did not meet expectations. Doshi stated that Beijing's Foreign Ministry, rather than technical agencies like the Ministry of Science and Technology, led the negotiations, limiting the content of substantive exchanges.
He said: "If China truly values dialogue, I think they should designate the people who understand the technology best to play a core role in their delegation, just like us."
AI is now once again elevated to presidential-level discussions, spanning two different U.S. administrations, reflecting that both sides have long recognized that AI poses a common strategic risk requiring direct high-level attention.
In 2023, around the time of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's centennial, Xi Jinping invited him to visit Beijing.
During the Cold War, few Americans had such a profound influence on China as Kissinger. His secret visit to China paved the way for President Nixon's 1972 visit and the normalization of U.S.-China relations.
Robert Hormats, who served as Kissinger's senior economic advisor, pointed out that Kissinger accepted the invitation hoping to confirm that AI issues would be included in the discussions.
Hormats recalled: "The Chinese side agreed." Xi Jinping and Kissinger discussed the necessity of establishing long-term AI dialogues, including regulatory issues and common security challenges.
Since then, relevant exchanges have developed into a continuous unofficial AI dialogue channel, led on the U.S. side by former Microsoft Chief Research Officer Craig Mundie, and on the Chinese side including Tsinghua University and representatives from multiple Chinese AI model companies.
Anja Manuel, Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, who participated in the unofficial AI dialogue, stated that current discussions focus on advanced model safety and how to design "guardrail" systems to ensure AI, even as its capabilities grow stronger, still adheres to human laws and intentions.
She said: "AI is becoming the operating system of global commerce, and it's almost impossible to discuss trade with China without discussing AI."
Myron Brilliant, a senior trade expert who recently met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and others, said that China is willing to discuss AI security with the U.S.
He quoted China as saying: "We will certainly compete vigorously with the United States, but we also see the importance of preventing global impact and cyber abuse, and therefore are willing to engage in dialogue on security agreements, technical safeguards, and governance, as long as the U.S. government is willing."
Today, internal discussions in the U.S. and China on the framework for AI competition increasingly resemble Cold War thinking, i.e., maintaining strategic stability through dialogue while competing with each other.
Manuel said: "We successfully did this with Russia in the past. At least the people dealing with nuclear security knew each other and understood each other's thinking." (Compiled by: Hsu Rui-cheng) 1150507
Choose to stand with facts, your every sponsorship is a force protecting press freedom.
Download the Central News Agency 'First-hand News' APP to stay updated with the latest news.
The text, images, and audio/video on this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast, publicly transmitted, or utilized without authorization.