In a lengthy interview published in Newsweek magazine on May 12, China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng laid out some of the issues in U.S.-China relations which will no doubt be matters of discussion at the May 14-15 Xi-Trump summit.
Ambassador Xie noted the regular communication that the two Presidents have maintained throughout this period. “In an increasingly turbulent world,” he said, “the strategic value of China-U.S. relations becomes more prominent. A stable and constructive China-U.S. relationship not only serves the fundamental interests of both our peoples, but also meets the shared expectation of the international community.”
Trade and investment will be high on the agenda, with Ambassador Xie noting that the recent Five-Year Plan called for greater opening up to foreign companies. “In the next five years, China will further expand opening-up trials for value-added telecom services, biotechnology, wholly foreign-owned hospitals and other fields, thus further unleashing the enormous benefits of its trillion-yuan-scale market,” he said. “As a prime arena for the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, China will provide a testing ground for new ideas and a frontier for value growth.”
He noted the increasing competition in the area of AI, a question that will no doubt be on the table of the Xi-Trump summit. “In 2023, President Xi Jinping put forth the Global AI Governance Initiative,” Xie said. “China has also proposed establishing a world AI cooperation organization, launched the AI+ International Cooperation Initiative, and held the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai for eight years in a row, the latest edition of which will be held in July.” “The world does not want to see an ‘Iron Curtain’ in AI,” Xie added, “nor attempts at technological enclosure, let alone a Star Wars-style rivalry in AI.”