U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent waits for the first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-fraud task force convened by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 27, 2026.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The U.S. can talk to China about AI because "we are in the lead," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC, as the countries unveiled a protocol on best practices for the rapidly improving technology.

"The two AI superpowers are gonna start talking. We're gonna set up a protocol in terms of how do we go forward with best practices for AI to make sure non-state actors don't get a hold of these models," Bessent told Joe Kernen on Thursday, on the sidelines of President Donald Trump's two-day meeting in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"The reason we are able to have wholesome discussions with the Chinese on AI is because we are in the lead," he added. "I do not think we would be having the same discussions if they were this far ahead of us," he said.

U.S.-based Anthropic has alarmed many in Washington and other countries with the Mythos AI model, which is supposed to have powerful cyberattack capabilities. The company said it would initially release it to select business partners.

BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 14: China's President Xi Jinping (R) and US President Donald Trump pose for a photo at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on May 14, 2026. Xi warned Trump that the issue of Taiwan could push their two countries into "conflict" if mishandled, a stark opening salvo as a superpower summit set to tackle numerous thorny issues began in Beijing on May 14. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski - Pool/Getty Images)

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Bessent told CNBC he anticipates a big "step-function jump" in upcoming large language model releases from Google's Gemini and OpenAI.

Washington has also sought to limit China's AI development by restricting sales of advanced semiconductors, primarily from Nvidia, to the country. The chipmaker's CEO, Jensen Huang, joined Trump's delegation to China as a late addition.

When asked about a Reuters report that Washington had cleared sales of Nvidia's H200 AI chips to several major Chinese technology firms, Bessent said there had been "a lot of back and forth" on the matter.

Trump and Xi wrapped up their first major meeting of this week's China trip at 12 p.m. local time Thursday. Beijing's readout said the Chinese leader emphasized that Taiwan is the most important issue for bilateral relations, and warned against mishandling the issue.

Beijing claims that Taiwan, a democratically self-ruled island, is part of its territory.

Bessent also told CNBC that Trump would say more on the issue of Taiwan "in the coming days."

"Trump ... understands the sensitivities around all this, and anyone who's been saying other otherwise does not understand the negotiating style of Donald Trump," he added.

Trump's trip to China this week is the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the country since 2017, when Trump visited during his first term. The summit kicked off Thursday morning and is due to wrap up Friday.

Ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting, Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in South Korea on Wednesday.

China's Commerce Ministry described the preliminary talks as an effort to resolve trade issues and "further expand pragmatic cooperation," according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese.

In a brief post on X Thursday morning, Bessent shares a picture of himself with He Lifeng, saying they had discussed "the economic and trade relationship between our nations."

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