By https://www.abc.net.au/news/bang-xiao/9528622
Publication Date: 2026-05-11 19:00:00
As China’s role in a potential U.S.-Iran settlement continues to dominate global headlines, it is the escalating technological rivalry between Washington and Beijing, particularly in artificial intelligence, that is likely to shape the most consequential conversations from Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Chinese capital this week.
Not because AI is another factor in the rivalry, but because it now permeates almost every uncertainty in the world order: security, trade, climate, energy, labor, surveillance, corporate power and the future of human society.
Beijing and Washington are not just competing over tariffs, chips, rare earths and market access. They compete over technologies that determine how economies grow, how nations govern, how militaries fight, how information is transmitted and how ordinary people live.
That gives the Trump-Xi meeting significance that goes beyond bilateral diplomacy. It is one of the most momentous dialogues…
