Pre-Summit Talks in New York
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent intends to discuss artificial intelligence, trade, rare earths and economic matters with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng when they meet in New York City this weekend, a source familiar with the plans said. The meeting will take place before a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for September 24 in Washington. Bessent said in a statement that he expects the talks to address both open-weight and closed-weight models. Open-weight models are AI systems whose core elements are publicly accessible, allowing users to download and fine-tune them for specific tasks.[S1]
AI Models and Rare Earths at the Center
These talks matter because Washington and Beijing are the leading players shaping both the creation of cutting-edge AI systems and how widely the world adopts them. Rare earth elements are a key input for producing technology. Open-weight models from China are drawing more interest from American firms since they often cost less than closed-weight alternatives from Anthropic, OpenAI and other U.S. developers. Such Chinese models have also found use inside the U.S. government. Reuters reported on Thursday, September 17, 2026, that a federal website relied on an AI model from a Chinese company so visitors could search proposed regulations, despite the FBI's claim that the model's maker, Alibaba, had maliciously copied Anthropic's technology.[S1]
