Trump and Xi Set for Talks Spanning AI Governance, Trade, and Iran
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set for direct talks covering artificial intelligence governance, trade tariffs, Iran, and nuclear weapons, Reuters reported on May 10. The talks represent the most substantive bilateral engagement between Washington and Beijing in over a year.
Both governments are weighing commitments on rare earth exports alongside the broader diplomatic agenda.
What the Trump-Xi Agenda Covers
The reported agenda spans four distinct domains. AI governance is expected to address the use of advanced models in military applications, an area where both nations have resisted binding multilateral rules.
Trade will center on tariff structures that have kept US-China commerce under pressure since 2018. Iran and nuclear policy complete the agenda, with Trump pushing for a regional settlement that Beijing has publicly opposed in its current form.
A US official told Reuters that a rare earths export arrangement between the two countries remains in effect, suggesting some prior channel of economic coordination.
Rare earth elements are critical inputs for semiconductor manufacturing, defense systems, and electric vehicles. China controls roughly 60% of global rare earth production.
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Background
Trump’s China engagement this week follows a period of sustained tariff escalation that began in early 2025.
The White House imposed successive rounds of import duties on Chinese goods, with Beijing retaliating through export controls on critical minerals. The current talks come as the Iran conflict has added a new variable, with Washington seeking Chinese diplomatic pressure on Tehran to accept a ceasefire framework.
Trump said on May 10, that Iran’s latest response to a US peace proposal was “unacceptable,” raising the stakes for any trilateral alignment that the Beijing summit could unlock.
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What to Watch
The talks have direct implications for the cryptocurrency and technology sectors. Any AI governance agreement that restricts model exports could affect US chip companies supplying inference hardware to Asian markets.
A tariff reduction framework would likely lift risk sentiment across technology assets, including Bitcoin (BTC) and large-cap tokens that have tracked macro trade signals closely in 2025 and 2026. The outcome on rare earths will be the fastest-moving signal for semiconductor supply chains.
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