Amid a fast-growing international debate over regulating artificial intelligence, President Trump and Chinese President Xi met at the White House for several hours on Thursday ahead of a state dinner where several of the biggest players in A.I. were set to attend. The day began with remarks from both Trump and Xi at the grand foyer of the White House. Afterward, Trump and Xi participated in a military review at the Rose Garden and took part in hours of meetings before Trump led a tour of parts of the White House.
While both leaders mentioned AI in their opening remarks, Xi stressed that the development of AI always needs to be “under human control.” Trump was set to host a state dinner for Xi Thursday evening, joined by a slate of tech leaders. Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were set to attend the dinner, a White House official confirmed. According to Chinese state media, President Xi raised the issue of Iran during the bilateral meeting, saying that he hoped the US and Iran would resume negotiations and that China would support the two countries recommitting to the 14-point memorandum of understanding reached months ago.
On Taiwan, Xi said he hopes the U.S. would maintain its position of opposing Taiwan independence. The U.S. has not officially endorsed Taiwan's independence, but has previously sold weaponry to the island and is widely viewed as a key player if China were to ever invade the self-ruling island. Earlier on Thursday, Xi urged more cooperation between the two countries.
During his remarks, he called for more direct flights between the U.S. and China and invited 100,000 American students for cultural exchange in the next five years. And continuing a longtime diplomatic tradition stretching back to the Nixon era, he announced two pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will be delivered to Zoo Atlanta in the coming days. This is the first time a Chinese leader has made a second formal state visit to America.
The last time Xi conducted a formal state visit in Washington, D.C. was at the invitation of President Obama in September 2015, three years after he succeeded as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Trump and Xi first met in 2017, during Trump’s first term, at the President’s home base of Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The pair last met in May during a two-day state visit by Trump to Beijing, where the U.S. and China delegations discussed a range of topics including tariffs, rare mineral trade, as well as the Strait of Hormuz.
The two leaders used the visit to announce the launch of a so-called Board of Trade intended to lower tariffs on products that aren’t considered a national security risk. In June, the Office of the United States Trade Representative asked the public to weigh in on which types of products would benefit from this new mechanism. The Administration has offered few updates on the board since then.
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