US Treasury’s Bessent plans to discuss AI and rare earths with China’s He, source says

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng shake hands during trade talks at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development headquarters in Paris, France, on March 16.

WASHINGTON - US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent plans to discuss AI, trade, rare earths and economic issues when he meets with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York City this weekend, according to a source familiar with his plans.

The discussions are significant because the US and China are the two major forces driving development of advanced AI tools and the global adoption of the technology. Rare earths play a crucial role in the manufacturing of technology.

Bessent and He will meet ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sept 24 in Washington.

The Associated Press first reported the US plans.

Bessent said in a statement that he expects the discussions to cover “both open- and closed-weight models.” Open-weight models are AI systems with publicly accessible core elements. Users can download and fine-tune them for specific tasks.

Chinese open-weight models are becoming more popular with US companies because they can be cheaper than so-called closed-weight AI tools, such as those developed by Anthropic, OpenAI and other US companies.

Chinese AI models have even been used by the US government. Reuters reported on Sept 17 that a US government website employed an AI model from a Chinese company to allow users to search proposed federal regulations even though the FBI accused the model’s developer, Alibaba, of “malicious” copying of Anthropic’s technology.

“The United States remains the leader in AI. And we are open to discussions on avoiding shared risks and avoiding bifurcation of our two systems,” Bessent said in his statement regarding the China talks.

The Treasury secretary has recently called for the US and China to agree on AI “guardrails” aimed at keeping powerful models out of the hands of malign non-state actors.

Questioned on AI safety at a House of Representatives Financial Services Committee hearing on Sept 15, he said it was up to US AI firms to decide whether to slow down their development, but argued they should be held liable for what they build and generate as a safety measure.

Details about the meetings in New York, which are expected to explore possible areas for Trump and Xi to agree on, have been scant. The source said that the meetings could extend to Sept 21 on a technical or “working” level.

Other key topics for Bessent and He to discuss include potential extension of a tariff truce that expires on Nov 10, and improving flows of Chinese-produced rare-earth magnets and critical minerals that China had severely curtailed in 2025.

The truce capped tariffs imposed during Trump’s second term in office at about 20 per cent. The Supreme Court later struck down Trump’s tariffs invoked under a national emergencies law, but his administration has been rebuilding them under new authorities.

In May, China pledged to increase purchases of US agriculture products and at least 200 Boeing aircraft, but details on those transactions have yet to emerge. REUTERS