WASHINGTON — -- Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for high stakes talks on Thursday at an urgent moment for the U.S.-China relationship, with the world’s preeminent powers divided on the war in Iran and still grappling to find common ground on trade and how to best navigate the jarring advances of artificial intelligence. With their countries in a generational contest for economic and technological dominance, the two appear to be betting that a combination of personal rapport and mutual interest can prevent the competition from boiling over into open conflict. “From the time of my first election in 2016, President Xi and I have forged a friendship, a truly great friendship, actually, built on mutual respect and the vital interests of our people,” Trump said as he welcomed Xi to the White House for a pomp-filled state visit. Xi was more pointed than Trump, saying Chinese and American interests are “deeply intertwined” and that the “competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds.” He also reiterated his warning that the U.S. and China must avoid the " Thucydides trap," referring to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war. Xi offered a similar warning when Trump visited Beijing in May. “It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” Xi added. China has resisted the Trump administration’s urgings -- and economic threats -- to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips. The two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend by two months a one-year trade truce that was set to expire Nov. 10 as they work to find a more durable agreement. Xi presses Trump on Taiwan During their private conversation on Thursday, Xi told Trump he hopes the U.S. can adhere to opposing Taiwan independence and urged him to “prudently handle the Taiwan issue,” according to the Chinese state media outlet Xinhua. The White House did not immediately release any readout of the talks and Trump, who frequently offers his own take of his interactions with foreign leaders on his social media platform, has yet to weigh in on the substance of his conversations with Xi. Trump, who is in the midst of a legal fight after trying to bar CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House, did complain that TV networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years.” The White House’s five-network television pool rotation refused to cover Trump’s events in response to the action against CNN. China has made clear it views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in the U.S.-China relationship. Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory and vows to annex the island by force if necessary. The United States is obligated by law to provide Taiwan with sufficient hardware to deter any armed attack from the mainland. The U.S. has said it opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. China has repeatedly pressed Washington to permanently halt the arms sales, including when Trump and Xi met in Beijing in May. After that meeting, Trump said he was holding off on final approval for a record US$14 billion arms package that was in the pipeline. He also described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China. Xi says China and U.S. should make sure AI is `always under human control’ Trump said in a social media post earlier Thursday that artificial intelligence -- “superintelligence” as he is trying to rebrand it -- was high on the agenda. The president has been dismissive of calls for greater regulation amid growing global anxiety that the technology will kill jobs or potentially even wipe out humanity. “I want to leave it exactly where it is,” Trump wrote. “That is China’s position also.” But Xi, in his opening comments, said that the two countries had “the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people.” The two countries’ finance ministers met earlier this week, with the U.S. proposing a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents between the two nations. Trump rolls out the red carpet for Xi Trump had made clear he wanted to impress Xi with the visit. The Republican U.S. president made sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House’s South Lawn was completed before the visit and he met Xi and his wife on Wednesday evening when they flew into Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. The White House also arranged an elaborate military review, which the leaders and their spouses observed before the Oval Office talks. After about 90 minutes of talks, the leaders stepped out to the South Lawn so Trump could show off the new White House helipad and give Xi a tour of Marine One, the presidential helicopter. Trump and Xi also appeared to peer at the ballroom construction site from afar. Xi left the White House shortly after the quick tour and returned in the evening for the state dinner. No Chinese CEOs at state dinner Tech titans, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, were among the 130 guests invited to the black-tie dinner, but Chinese CEOs were conspicuously absent. U.S. and Chinese planners did discuss including several executives from some notable Chinese companies, according to a person familiar with the planning for the state visit who was not authorized to comment publicly. One obstacle that came up during the negotiations for the state visits was that the U.S. side was slow to propose protocols and clarify the roles the Chinese CEOs would have during the state visit, the person said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the absence of Chinese business leaders. While Trump has offered plenty of glitz, some China analysts observed that the talks seemed light on substance. Danny Russel, a former senior U.S. State Department official who served in former U.S. president Barack Obama’s administration, observed that the two leaders spent more time in social and ceremonial events than in formal talks about the core issues facing the two nations. “What we’re seeing isn’t diplomacy so much as `diplotainment,’ which won’t do much to solve the serious problems in the U.S.-China relationship,” said Russel, who is now a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Xi urges U.S. and Iran to return to interim agreement The two sides discussed the ongoing conflict in Iran, according to Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television. Trump has argued to little effect that China, which is far more dependent on Gulf oil than the U.S., has plenty of incentive to use its sway with Tehran to help force an end to the conflict. But Trump’s war of choice has unnerved Beijing, with the government condemning the U.S. and Israeli military action and Xi previously expressing concerns that the conflict signaled a return to what he called the “law of the jungle.” The U.S. administration has warned China, Tehran’s biggest trading partner, not to aid Iran’s military effort. Xi, during Thursday’s talks, said China supports the U.S. and Iran returning to a short-lived interim deal from the summer to wind down the war, according to CCTV. That agreement broke down soon after it was signed in June as the countries traded renewed fire over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments. By Aamer Madhani, Didi Tang and Michelle L. Price, The Associated Press Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Collin Binkley, Josh Boak, Kevin Freking, Seung Min Kim, Darlene Superville and Will Weissert and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin contributed to this report.
