00:00Now to Dennis Simon, Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute's East Asia Program.
00:05Dennis, welcome. Good to see you.
00:08You've heard both leaders' speeches. I know you were watching them.
00:12What stood out for you most from their remarks?
00:17So I thought President Xi's speech in particular was very clear,
00:22was very consistent with the similar ideas that he expressed in May
00:27when President Trump visited Beijing.
00:30And I thought they were very sensible in the sense that these two countries must work together.
00:36And President Xi laid out the groundwork for what it's going to take for the two countries to collaborate.
00:42In particular, I thought one of the key points was that he said that both leaders should leverage
00:48their good relationship between one another and try to get the various departments
00:53and organizations involved in their respective governments now to begin to work together
01:00to expand and deepen the relationship.
01:02I thought that was a very important statement.
01:04Both leaders putting a strong emphasis on cooperation.
01:09Just how significant, I wonder, is the tone they're setting that we're hearing and watching today?
01:17Well, sometimes we go from it would be nice to have cooperation to the necessity of cooperation.
01:25So if we take, for example, what's going on in the field of artificial intelligence
01:29or what President Trump calls superintelligence, we must be aware that both countries,
01:35as President Xi stated, have not only capability, but they also have responsibility.
01:41And I know I'm here in Beijing.
01:43I can tell you for a fact that Chinese officials, like people in the United States,
01:49are concerned about the evolution and development of this technology
01:54because they know that there are good things about it,
01:57but also they know that there are people who will use it for nefarious purposes.
02:01And I think both countries have this kind of responsibility,
02:06not only on a bilateral level, but also on a multilateral level,
02:10to begin a process of consultation and better communication about what's going on.
02:17They're heading into talks soon.
02:20What will you be watching for as a sign of real progress?
02:26Well, I'll look for whether they really have identified common ground.
02:32So we know one piece of progress that was made was the formalization of this Board of Trade,
02:37but they haven't yet gotten to formalizing the Board of Investment that they've been talking about.
02:45President Xi, in his speech, asked that the Chinese companies be treated fairly
02:51if they want to come to the United States and do business,
02:55and he committed the Chinese side to receive American companies.
02:59So I think that we're going to see fertile ground set in place for a somewhat rejuvenation of U.S.-China
03:08business contacts,
03:09and I think both sides do need this expansion of foreign investment.
03:13So I'm looking for something on that ground.
03:16I would have liked to have seen a renewal of collaboration in science and technology more broadly speaking,
03:24since the bilateral relationship did renew their original 1979 agreement in December 2024.
03:33But let's see where they go with AI, because I think that's what the world is really watching about.
03:40U.S. domestic firms in the AI field are looking at that.
03:43Chinese firms are looking at that.
03:45So they wonder, you know, what kind of agreement the two leaders might come to.
03:50It's a complicated issue, and it's complicated because we're not only talking about bilateral competition and collaboration,
03:58but also within each of our countries they're looking at this problem as well.
04:03Dennis, we'll know more in the coming hours.
04:05We have to leave it there.
04:06Thank you so much for your time.
04:08Dennis Simon, the Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute's East Asia Program.
04:12We'll see you next time.
