The recently concluded summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing produced few concrete agreements and left both sides with a sharper sense of just how deep the chasm between Washington and Beijing has become.
Analysts point to three core issues that remain irreconcilable: Taiwan, Iran, and artificial intelligence supremacy. On Taiwan, Trump repeated the US commitment to the island's self-defence while stopping short of any formal security guarantee. On Iran, the US pushing for maximum pressure while China, Iran's largest oil customer, has little interest in economic isolation of Tehran.
Perhaps most consequential is the AI dimension. Both nations are engaged in what amounts to a technological arms race, with massive state investment in frontier AI models, semiconductor manufacturing, and military applications of AI. Beijing announced a new $50 billion domestic semiconductor fund just days before the summit.
The original Cold War was won in part because one side eventually ran out of money. In this contest, both sides have essentially unlimited capital. That makes it far more dangerous.
