The summit showed that differences can be bridged on competitive issues such as AI governance, trade stability, climate change, public health and transnational crime. That that bridge can model ways of working together that can help solve other problems.

At the Washington summit it was more than obvious that China-U.S. cooperation is essential and must continue despite any potholes in the road. Neither country, nor the world, can afford to have the wheels come off.

The May and September reciprocal state visits by U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping have seemingly succeeded in cementing warm personal ties between the two leaders while stabilizing an unstable U.S.-China relationship. Historians may look back on these twin summits as perhaps a turning point following a decade of tumult and steadily intensifying competition between the two powers. While the two summits have succeeded in warming the atmosphere, there remains much substantive and institutional work to do.

When President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in Washington this week, AI governance is expected to be at the top of the agenda. The United States and China have been racing to develop increasingly powerful AI systems, and neither has shown much appetite for slowing down. But not even the winner of the AI race will be exempt from the profound risks the technology poses.

The challenges posed by the development of artificial intelligence are no longer hypothetical. They are already a reality. Viewing AI solely through the lens of competition could cause China and the United States to miss opportunities to coordinate and address shared risks.

The United States needs to demonstrate solidarity with Japan as it faces concurrent challenges from China, Russia, and North Korea.

The upcoming Xi-Trump summit could yield progress on trade, AI and other areas, but deeper tensions will remain. Its significance may ultimately lie in three areas: stabilization, substance and symbolism.

The relationship is likely to remain characterized by the dynamics of cooperation and competition—with friction and coordination coexisting for the foreseeable future. The primary role for heads of state will not be to produce dramatic breakthroughs but rather to build trust.

By Quan Zhao GENEVA—When Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump meet in Washington this month, AI will be near the top of the agenda

For China, a prerequisite is characterizing the overall kind of relationship the two sides have before specific issues can be discussed. The United States has often taken the opposite approach, starting with results in specific areas, then expand. Now the two sides seem to be nudging closer.