US President Donald Trump will personally receive Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on Wednesday, an unusual gesture from a US president.
"I will discuss almost everything with him," Trump said before the meeting.
“Everything” in this case can refer to many different topics. The trade war is a central issue where no lasting agreement has been secured, and when it comes to the war in Iran, China wants to avoid US sanctions on countries that do business with Iran.
This is because China is one of Tehran's main economic and diplomatic partners.
The threat of a military confrontation over Taiwan also hangs over the summit. Taiwan has effectively functioned as an independent state since 1949, but the government in Beijing repeatedly threatens to conquer the island by military means.
Taiwan has been dependent on US support to withstand growing pressure from China, but under Donald Trump, the US stance on the situation has increasingly become subject to interpretation.
At the forefront
But of all the issues that have strained relations between the superpowers, AI looks set to be the one that will take center stage during the summit, which is being held on Thursday, the day after Xi lands.
The USA and China are at the forefront of development and are competing to be the best and fastest.
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that "whoever wins AI wins," and that the United States must ensure that it has a technological lead over China in development.
China, in turn, has accused the United States of seeking a monopoly by imposing export restrictions on advanced chips.
“Shared vision”
Experts assess the prospects for extensive AI cooperation between the countries as small, but ahead of the meeting, the US has proposed a new joint alert mechanism for AI incidents that could affect national security.
Both superpowers see AI risks as cyberattacks, biological threats and humans losing control over AI systems.
"We want to have a shared vision of common goals and common threats," said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Sunday.
China now wants to work with the United States to build "strategic stability" and "manage differences," Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, has announced ahead of the summit.
