Bessent Urges Realism as Washington and Beijing Weigh AI Cooperation Against Rivalry

A candid message ahead of a high-stakes meeting

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called on Washington and Beijing to set aside any naive expectations about artificial intelligence, arguing that the two countries can work together on containing the technology’s dangers even as they vie for dominance in the field. Speaking on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York, Bessent framed the relationship as one that must rest on balance and reciprocity.

A new dialogue on superintelligence

Bessent is set to travel to China next week to join President Donald Trump’s third meeting this year with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The talks are scheduled for Shenzhen, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit slated for November 18 to 19. A central item will be a bilateral dialogue on what the Trump administration calls “superintelligence,” a term Bessent used in his remarks.

According to Bessent, the discussions aim to head off shared hazards and to avoid misreadings between the two political and technological systems. Officials expect to compare approaches to assessing and stress-testing advanced models before they are released, and to reaffirm that people, not machines, retain final authority over the technology.

Trump and Xi had already agreed during their September meeting at the White House to create a channel for flagging serious AI incidents. At that time, however, Trump signaled hesitation about adding further safeguards, saying he wanted to protect American leadership in the sector.

Acknowledging limits to agreement

Bessent cautioned that the countries’ interests would not always align, and that their methods for handling disputes would often diverge. He said that growing capabilities in the field would bring a corresponding need to manage new categories of risk, and that both nations would have to show they could balance competitive pressure with their wider responsibilities.

Shadow of the Nvidia controversy

Bessent did not address the turmoil surrounding Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. The chipmaker’s board is investigating Huang after a New York Times report alleged he had an affair with a businesswoman whom U.S. security agencies reportedly suspect of being a Chinese intelligence asset. Beijing’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the espionage claims as baseless and a smear. Nvidia says it has found no reason to think national security or corporate secrets were compromised, and Huang has agreed to cooperate with the review. He has acknowledged to staff that he was unfaithful to his wife but has not disclosed further details. Huang attended the earlier Trump-Xi summits in Beijing in May and in Washington in September, and it remains unclear whether he will join the Asia-Pacific gathering.

Background and what comes next

Trade has been another thread running through the two leaders’ recent meetings. Bessent pointed to agreements from the previous two summits, including plans for a “Board of Trade” to set reciprocal tariff reductions on roughly $30 billion of goods. He also invoked the 1784 voyage in which American merchants first traded ginseng for Chinese tea, porcelain and silk, arguing that the relationship has long rested on recognizing when shared aims should outweigh rivalry. A fourth Trump-Xi meeting this year is expected in December, when the United States hosts the G20 summit in Miami.