Wicked issues like Taiwan, nuclear weapons, Iran, and AI
The meeting between Trump and Xi is expected to pivot to areas that have long been a source of tensions between the United States and China, including Iran, Taiwan and nuclear weapons.
China maintains relations with Iran and remains a major consumer of crude oil exports. President Trump has called for using China’s influence to push Tehran to reach a deal with the United States and end the conflict that began when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February.
The Trump administration is also pressuring China about its dealings with Russia.
“The president has had multiple meetings with General Secretary Xi Jinping about the Iran and Russia issues, including revenue and dual-use goods, parts and components that China provides to both regimes, not to mention potential arms exports,” one of the officials said.
“I think that conversation will continue.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Xi is dissatisfied with the United States over Taiwan. The United States remains the most important international supporter and arms supplier to the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own Chinese territory.
Although China has increased its military presence near Taiwan in recent years, U.S. policy remains unchanged, the official said.
President Trump’s aides are increasingly concerned about advanced artificial intelligence models being developed in China and believe the two countries need “channels of communication” to avoid conflict arising from the use of artificial intelligence.
“What that will look like has not yet been decided, but we would like to take this opportunity to consider whether we should hold a summit, start a dialogue and establish communication channels on AI issues,” one of the officials said.
The US government has also long wanted to start talks with Beijing about nuclear weapons, but China remains reluctant to discuss nuclear weapons.
The Chinese government has privately told the United States that it is “not interested in sitting down and discussing any kind of nuclear arms control or anything along those lines at this time.”
Trump and Xi last met in South Korea in October, when they agreed to suspend a bitter trade war in which the United States imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing threatened to limit global supplies of rare earths.
The Supreme Court said in February that President Trump does not have the authority to impose many tariffs on imports around the world. He vowed to use other legal means to reimpose some of the levies.
