US Proposes AI Safety Hotline With China Before Trump-Xi Summit

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng concluded eight hours of talks in New York on Sunday, covering artificial intelligence, trade and investment ahead of a Trump-Xi summit at the White House this week. Bessent described the discussions as "very successful" and said the two sides agreed to establish a US-China AI dialogue.

The United States proposed a notification mechanism for AI incidents that rise to a national security level, aiming to move from opacity to transparency between the world's top two AI powers. Bessent said both sides want a shared vision of common goals and common threats.

“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important.”

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the talks prepared the groundwork for a successful leaders' meeting and that a Board of Trade process agreed in May would be operationalized to identify tariff cuts on non-sensitive goods. Greer said a relatively small subset of balanced, non-sensitive products could be traded separately from future trade measures.

Chinese officials, including chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang, did not address reporters after the meetings at JPMorgan Chase headquarters. The Chinese response to the US AI proposal was not publicly detailed. Trump and Xi first discussed AI consultations in May in Beijing, but that forum was never formalized.