Xi says U.S., China reached new trade arrangement at White House summit, urges AI cooperation

The report did not elaborate on the arrangement. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that Washington and Beijing agreed to extend their trade truce by two months, until Jan. 10, Yonhap reported.

The summit covered artificial intelligence, trade, security, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war, according to the reports. Xi said a stable economic relationship requires "expanding the list of cooperation and shortening the list of problems."

On AI, Xi said the two countries have more opportunity for cooperation than competition, according to a state media readout of the Oval Office meeting cited by CNBC. "The two sides can continue AI dialogue, exchange views on risks and benefits, and together guard against the misuse or malicious use of AI," Xi said, according to CNBC's translation of the readout. He said humans should maintain control of the technology and that AI should support human progress.

The U.S. has restricted China's access to advanced semiconductors for training AI models and criticized Chinese companies for allegedly taking part in illicit distillation of American AI capabilities, CNBC reported. Recent incidents have raised fears that increasingly autonomous AI models could make attacks faster and harder to contain, according to CNBC.

Bessent said earlier in the week, after meeting with Chinese negotiators in New York, that the two sides had discussed setting up a "U.S.-China AI Dialogue" and that the U.S. proposed an alert system for AI incidents, CNBC reported. China's Commerce Ministry confirmed Thursday that its senior trade negotiators had held their first talks with the U.S. on AI, according to CNBC.

Xi also expressed China's hope that the U.S. would oppose "Taiwan independence" and handle the Taiwan issue "with prudence" to lay a solid foundation for bilateral strategic cooperation, Xinhua reported. Ahead of the summit, Trump and Xi were expected to touch on North Korea-related issues as Trump hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, Yonhap reported.

At a White House welcome ceremony, Xi said the U.S. and China are both leading nations in AI and have "the capability and responsibility" to develop and manage AI for good, ensuring it is "always under human control and serves the well-being of the people," according to Xinhua. Trump, in a U.N. General Assembly address on Tuesday, said the U.S. "totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control AI" and would not "stifle" AI growth, Yonhap reported, showing apparent differences with Xi's position.

The two leaders stressed friendship and shared interests, recalling that the U.S. and China fought alongside each other as allies during World War II. "If we focus on our common interests, I'm confident there is much we can achieve," Trump said, according to Yonhap. Xi said he was ready to work with Trump to steer the China-U.S. relationship "on a steady course toward the future" and called for "candid, in-depth, and continued dialogue."

Xi said the interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined. "China-U.S. cooperation may not solve every problem in the world, but without our cooperation, it would be hard to solve many of the world's problems," he said, according to Yonhap. He also said his vision of the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" and Trump's "make America great again" drive can "go hand in hand."

Xi promised two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, to Zoo Atlanta, saying they will arrive from a research base in Chengdu "in the coming days," CNBC reported. They would be Zoo Atlanta's first pandas since its previous four returned to China in November 2024. Xi also said China would invite 100,000 young Americans to study there over the next five years, according to CNBC.

China has used pandas as a diplomatic barometer since Mao Zedong sent a pair to Washington's National Zoo after Richard Nixon's 1972 visit, CNBC reported. Beijing shifted from gifting pandas outright to leasing them in 1984, and the loans have tracked the temperature of the relationship, the report said.

"Panda diplomacy conveys a message of friendship and goodwill from China," Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told CNBC. "Americans may not like China, but they will certainly like pandas." Han Shen Lin, associate professor at NYU Shanghai, told CNBC that for Beijing the message is friendship without requiring major policy concessions, while for Washington it is a reminder that even amid intense competition there is room for visible, people-to-people engagement.

Xi arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday and is scheduled to leave Friday. Trump greeted him planeside at Joint Base Andrews, a welcome rarely extended to visiting heads of state, CNBC reported. It is Xi's first state visit to the U.S. since Barack Obama's presidency more than a decade ago, according to CNBC. The leaders are meeting through Friday, with the agenda also spanning tariffs, critical minerals, Taiwan and the Iran war, CNBC reported.