Cybersecurity Policy Report, Democrats Urge Trump to Engage China’s Leader on AI Security, (Sep 24, 2026)
President Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, should use their summit this week to begin discussing how the two nations could collaborate on AI (artificial intelligence) security, according to 17 Senate Democrats.
“America leads in AI innovation, and we must lead the world in AI safety and international cooperation, including by working with China to develop a formal agreement that would slow down, and potentially enact a mutual pause in, frontier AI development to prevent cyberattacks, the development of biological weapons, and other dangerous activities that threaten the lives of the American people and humanity writ large,” the lawmakers said in a letter to President Trump.
“An international race between the U.S. and China to advance these capabilities without safety guardrails, as is currently unfolding, poses unnecessary and dangerous risks to the American people,” they warned.
They noted that both nations had taken steps toward ensuring that AI models with cyber attack capabilities were withheld from the public, although the Trump administration has made pre-deployment testing voluntary.
The senators likened the deployment of advanced AI to the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Cold War, which led to cooperation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Presidents Trump and Xi, who began a two-day summit yesterday, should do the same to address the threat of AI, they advised.
“AI technology is too powerful, and its risks too many, for the U.S. and China to forgo discussions on parameters around its development and use. What our two countries develop as guardrails will serve as a standard for how the technology is used worldwide,” the senators said.
“Given how quickly AI technology is developing and how transformative it may be, we cannot delay our pursuit of diplomatic efforts to mitigate its risks,” they added. “Those efforts must start with direct engagement with China to ensure the safety and well-being of all people as AI innovation continues.”
The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), Patty Murray (D., Wash.), Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D., Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.), Tina Smith (D., Minn.), Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.), Alex Padilla (D., Calif.), Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.), Peter Welch (D., Vt.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D., Md.).
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