Beijing has agreed to work with Washington to improve governance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and to enhance cooperation as Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Donald Trump met face-to-face at the White House on Thursday.

Xi made the pledge in his speech at a morning welcoming ceremony, before the two leaders held closed-door talks in the Oval Office. It was their first face-to-face meeting since May. According to Chinese state media, Xi raised Taiwan and Iran in the talks, but neither side had announced any trade agreement by Thursday afternoon US time.

Xi put forward several initiatives, including:

inviting 100,000 young Americans to China for exchanges and study over the next five years;

increasing direct flights to facilitate two-way travel and trade;

strengthening cooperation on counter-narcotics and law enforcement; and

maintaining regular dialogue between the two militaries and improving crisis communication and prevention mechanisms.

The youth pledge doubles an initiative Xi launched in San Francisco in November 2023, whose 50,000 target was met in May, two and a half years ahead of schedule, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

"Both China and the US are leading nations in AI. We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people," Xi said.

"China-US cooperation may not solve every problem in the world, but without our cooperation, it would be hard to solve many of the world's problems," he said. "Working together, we can lengthen the list of cooperation and shorten the list of issues."

Xi's remarks came after Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held their first dialogue on AI in New York on Sunday. Bessent said both sides had agreed to launch a hotline to notify each other of AI safety incidents.

Taiwan and Iran

The Trump administration has put a proposed US$14 billion arms package for Taiwan, the largest ever for the island, on hold since Trump's summit with Xi in Beijing in May. Trump has described the package as a potential "negotiating chip" with Beijing. It has not yet been decided when to proceed.