Bessent Says U.S. AI Lead Justifies Safety Talks With China
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Thursday that the United States can engage China in substantive AI safety negotiations precisely because America currently leads the technology race.
Speaking from the sidelines of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, Bessent told CNBC’s Joe Kernen that Washington and Beijing intend to establish a formal protocol covering AI best practices. The goal is to prevent non-state actors from gaining access to the most powerful frontier models.
Two Superpowers, One Framework
Bessent framed the planned accord as a natural outcome of American strength rather than diplomatic concession. He said the candid nature of the talks with Beijing stemmed directly from the U.S. position at the frontier of AI development. The implication was clear: a weaker negotiating posture would have produced a weaker dialogue.
The Treasury Secretary also flagged what he described as an imminent “step-function jump” in capability from upcoming large language model releases, pointing specifically to Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s next-generation systems. That framing reinforced the argument that the gap between U.S. and Chinese AI capability remains wide enough to negotiate from strength.
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Chips, Taiwan, and Sidebar Diplomacy
The conversation also touched on semiconductor access. A Reuters report surfaced this week claiming Washington had cleared Nvidia’s H200 AI chips for sale to several large Chinese technology companies. Bessent acknowledged significant back-and-forth on the matter but offered no firm confirmation or denial.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined the presidential delegation to China as a late addition, underscoring how central chip diplomacy has become to the broader bilateral relationship. Washington has sought to restrict Beijing’s access to advanced semiconductors for several years, viewing chip supply as a lever for slowing Chinese AI development.
On Taiwan, Bessent said President Trump would address the issue publicly within days. Chinese President Xi Jinping used the summit’s opening to warn that mishandling Taiwan could push the two countries toward direct conflict. Beijing considers the democratically governed island its own territory.
Context: First Presidential Visit Since 2017
The Beijing summit marks the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to China since Trump’s own 2017 trip during his first term. Preliminary groundwork was laid Wednesday in Seoul, where Bessent met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to scope out trade and economic cooperation ahead of the leaders’ session. The two-day summit is scheduled to conclude Friday.
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