Hopes dim for US-China détente during leaders’ summit

retained text

Analysts voiced skepticism that the US and China would agree on AI regulation — or, indeed, any broad-ranging détente during next week’s leaders’ summit. The US Treasury secretary told Axios he was open to discussing “shared risks” on AI with Beijing at talks this weekend ahead of the summit. “Bitter rivals have come together to curb threats to humanity in the past,” The Economist acknowledged, but noted that the superpowers and their AI labs harbored deep mistrust of one another.
Writing in Foreign Affairs, a leading China analyst was similarly downbeat: “In the past, the United States and China achieved breakthroughs when conditions were just right and leaders with great diplomatic acuity were in charge. The circumstances today are less favorable.”

document fetched 2026-09-18 02:55 · canonical https://semafor.com/article/09/17/2026/hopes-dim-for-us-china-talks-during-leaders-summit