U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that countries have released protocols on best practices for rapidly evolving technologies, and that “the United States can talk to China about artificial intelligence because we are leading.”
“The two AI superpowers are going to start a dialogue. We’re going to set protocols in terms of how we move forward with AI best practices so that non-state parties don’t get access to these models,” Bessent told Joe Kernen on Thursday on the sidelines of two days of talks in Beijing with President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“The reason we can have healthy discussions with the Chinese about AI is because we are in the lead,” Bessent added. “If we were this far ahead, we wouldn’t be having the same discussions,” he said.
US-based Anthropic has alerted many in Washington and other countries with its Mythos AI model, which is said to have powerful cyber attack capabilities. The company said it would initially release it to some business partners.
BEIJING, CHINA – MAY 14: Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump pose for a photo at the Temple of Heaven on May 14, 2026 in Beijing. The opening salvo of a multi-task superpower summit began in Beijing on May 14, with Xi warning Trump that a mishandled response could push the two countries into “conflict.” (Photo by Brendan Smialowski – Pool/Getty Images)
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Bessent told CNBC that he expects large “step function jumps” to occur in future large-scale language model releases. googleGemini and OpenAI.
The US government is also trying to limit China’s AI development, primarily by restricting sales of advanced semiconductors from China. Nvidiato the country. The company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, was a late addition to President Trump’s delegation to China.
Asked about a Reuters report that the U.S. government had authorized the sale of Nvidia’s H200 AI chip to several major Chinese technology companies, Bessent said there had been “a lot of back and forth” on the matter.
President Trump and President Xi concluded their first major meeting of this week’s trip to China at 12pm local time on Thursday. The Chinese leader emphasized that Taiwan was the most important issue for bilateral relations and warned against mistreating Taiwan, according to a readout by the Chinese government.
The Chinese government claims Taiwan, a democratically autonomous island, is part of its territory.
Bessent also told CNBC that President Trump will say more on the Taiwan issue “in the coming days.”
“Mr. Trump … understands the sensitivity to these things, and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand Donald Trump’s negotiating style,” he added.
Bessent Asia Week
President Trump’s visit to China this week marks the first time a sitting US president has visited the country since 2017, when Trump visited the country during his first term. The summit began Thursday morning and is scheduled to end Friday.
Prior to the meeting between President Trump and Mr. Xi, Mr. Bessent spoke with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in South Korea on Wednesday.
According to a translation by CNBC, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the preliminary talks were an effort to resolve trade issues and “further expand practical cooperation.”
On Thursday morning, Bessent shared a photo with He Lifeng in a short post on X and said they had discussed “economic and trade relations between our two countries.”
