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Over the better part of three days, President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington for a summit that drew international attention for its high-stakes agenda, from trade and AI to Taiwan. While some experts saw the summit as an exercise in kicking the can down the road on major issues, others emphasized the significance of Trump treating Xi as an equal on the world stage. Read more below.Sam Bresnick Research Fellow and Andrew W. Marshall Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging TechnologyThe Xi-Trump summit yielded little progress on AI. Yes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng agreed to establish an AI risk dialogue and a national security incident notification mechanism. The latter, however, is unlikely to be useful due to China’s difficulty with sharing information and communicating during crises. Binding mutual regulations are currently off the table.The modest outcome is unsurprising. President Donald Trump is pushing AI acceleration despite warnings from Silicon Valley. Although General Secretary Xi Jinping noted the importance of keeping AI under human control, China suspects U.S. safety rhetoric is a means to lock it in second place. Beijing is also optimistic that it can manage near-term AI risks. Given that neither side is interested in slowing development, the best outcome at this stage is that the new dialogue allows the two countries to better understand each other’s position on AI safety issues.Zack Cooper Senior fellow at American Enterprise InstituteThe Trump-Xi summit can be summed up in two words: pageantry and procrastination.Pageantry was on high display from the moment Trump met Xi planeside. The president continued to pour on the pomp, reciprocating the reception he received in Beijing. For a trip spanning parts of three days, this visit left little room for substance, but that was a feature,