Hello, I’m Evelyn. I am writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection. This is a concise summary of what I have seen and heard from local companies.
In China, students and businesses alike have embraced AI, but the US is more concerned about the negative effects. Will U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting foster cooperation on AI safety?
big story
At an intersection in Hangzhou, a robotic voice warned me (and others) that a scooter driver wasn’t wearing a helmet, even though I saw him wearing one.
Despite this, cities and other cities are testing robot police officers. The national cybersecurity regulator on Friday released guidelines to ensure the safe use of agent AI.
This is a reminder that the Chinese government has emphasized AI control from the beginning in the US-China technology competition. Only now does the US seem to be taking the issue seriously.
Expectations are rising that President Trump and President Xi will discuss AI cooperation in Beijing this week as comparisons to Cold War-era nuclear threats mount.
Given concerns about the latest AI models, senior US officials told reporters at a briefing ahead of the planned summit: “We are prepared to explore routes to deconfliction.”
The stakes are rising rapidly.
US-based Anthropic has rolled out its cyber-focused Mythos to some customers in the past few weeks, a model that Chinese state media noted for its “unprecedented capabilities in cyberattacks.” Meanwhile, the latest version of China’s open source DeepSeek model moves further away from the US chip.
Hai Zhao, director of international politics research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-run think tank, said the two countries could work on a “global treaty regulating the use of AI in the military.”
“If China (and) the United States get into an AI arms race, it will be bad not only for both countries, but for all of humanity,” he said.
However, governments are typically followers rather than leaders of technological innovation. The education and research ecosystem remains the central driver.
There, China is leading the way, with the Chinese government’s mission to achieve AI penetration of over 70% in key industries by next year.
According to the traditional version of the Leiden University Rankings in the Netherlands, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Jiao Tong University in Shanghai have overtaken Harvard to take the top spot in university rankings based on scientific performance.
And just as Silicon Valley has Stanford University, many of China’s tech startups, including DeepSeek, have their roots in Zhejiang University. The school’s alumni association has published a list of 10 companies, including quantum computing company Logistics Bits, which it says could be “the next Deep Seek.”
diverse public
People ride bicycles past one of 15 humanoid robot police officers deployed in Hangzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang province, on May 3, 2026.
Agatha Cantril | AFP | Getty Images
That changed the face of technology competition. “The performance gap between U.S. and Chinese AI models has effectively closed,” Stanford University researchers concluded in this year’s annual AI report.
For Hunter Roscombe, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who is on exchange at Zhejiang University for two years, the technology race is more about different approaches.
He said AI feels more behind the scenes in the United States. In China, he says, it has become part of everyday life.
“At least in the Midwest… you don’t really get as much exposure to technology as you do here,” he says. “Even just walking down the street in Hangzhou, it’s definitely quite an eye-opener because it’s everywhere here, but you don’t see it in the Midwest.”
And this week’s summit between President Trump and President Xi will test whether those differences can lead to AI cooperation.
need to know
Trump-Xi summit focuses on Iran, potentially delaying progress on tariffs and rare earths
The U.S. government turned down China’s invitation to hold industry-specific meetings between senior Chinese leaders and U.S. CEOs because it thought it might make American companies appear too close to China, according to a U.S. executive with direct knowledge of the deal.
China pressures Iran not to resume war, urges Hormuz to reopen ahead of Trump-Xi summit
Iran’s foreign minister met with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Wednesday. China’s statement called for “immediate resumption of shipping operations through the Strait of Hormuz,” but Iran’s statement did not mention this.
BYD’s passenger EV sales decline for 8 consecutive months due to intensifying competition
BYD’s passenger car sales declined for the eighth straight month in April, but domestic rivals Leap Motor and G-Car recorded record monthly deliveries.
very soon
May 13: Alibaba releases March quarter results
May 14-15: US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing
May 18: April retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment data
May 18: Baidu announces first quarter results
