The US-China summit: what’s at stake

President Donald Trump is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House later this week for bilateral talks and state dinner. The two superpowers have an increasingly complicated relationship. Trump has frequently criticized China as an economic and strategic threat while simultaneously praising China’s leader personally.

High on the summit agenda is the AI race, an issue that’s been made more urgent by warnings from tech leaders and researchers about the risks of AI escaping human control. But with Trump insisting he doesn’t want to slow innovation, it seems unlikely the two competitors will find common ground.

Other critical issues include the trade truce over rare earth minerals and the war in Iran, a key trade partner for China. 

In this episode, we’ll explore the state of US-China relations and the broader struggle for global power. And we’ll break down what’s at stake in these talks from the AI rivalry, tariffs, and Taiwan.

Guests:

• Emily Feng, a White House correspondent for NPR and long-time China reporter
• Aaron Friedberg, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and the author of The Derisking Race