The US and China have outlined competing approaches to artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, with Washington emphasising technological leadership and safeguards, while Beijing called for international cooperation and shared governance of security risks.
The threat of AI escaping human control as it develops at high speed has sparked a global debate on how it should be regulated.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to balance AI innovation with safety while preserving US technological advantage over China.
The US and China are the two major driving forces of frontier AI development and the technology's global adoption.
Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, Bessent said the administration had been working on AI policy for more than five months and was seeking to encourage the development of open-source and open AI models.
“We are solving for both innovation and safety,” he said.
Washington focuses on US AI lead
Bessent warned against excessive regulation by major AI companies, saying it could restrict competition and innovation.
“We can't let these large labs have regulatory capture, because that will stop innovation,” he said.
He also linked AI policy directly to US competition with China, accusing Chinese developers of using US models to advance their own systems.
“The Chinese models, they distill from the US models,” Bessent said, describing the practice as “steal.”
He argued that expanding US access to open AI models could make Chinese alternatives less attractive internationally.
Advanced semiconductor technology is another key element of the administration’s strategy, Bessent said.
“AI runs on the advanced chips that the US has a substantial lead in,” he said, adding that restricting other countries’ access to those chips was important to Washington’s approach to AI competition.
Bessent said Treasury had initially focused its AI and cybersecurity work on the financial sector, working with major banks before expanding the effort to institutions of different sizes.
He described the government’s Project Gold Eagle initiative as a clearinghouse for lessons on resilience and information sharing.
Beijing pushes multilateral AI governance
In Beijing, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun called for greater international cooperation on emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and outer space.
Speaking on Wednesday at the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum, Dong said global security governance required consensus and concrete action.
“For global security governance, action is the key and outcomes the ultimate measure,” he said, according to CGTN.
The three-day forum, marking its 20th anniversary, is attended by about 2,000 officials, academics, experts and observers from around 100 countries, regions and international organisations.
Dong urged countries to reject exclusive blocs and escalating tensions and called for cooperation in AI, outer space and deep-sea technologies so they can “better benefit all humanity,” according to the South China Morning Post.
He also warned against a zero-sum approach and called for vigilance against “hegemonism” and “militarism.”
Dong said multilateralism was essential to maintaining global strategic stability and argued that narrowing development gaps was central to improving international security, particularly for countries in the Global South.
