US-China AI Talks Undercut by Gap Between Rhetoric and Policy

Two analyses argue the US position in AI dealings with China is weakened by a mismatch between what Washington says and what it does. One piece contends the US cannot credibly press China to restrain AI development unless it first enacts meaningful AI governance at home, since Beijing interprets American calls to "pace the frontier" as thinly veiled attempts to preserve US technological dominance rather than genuine safety concerns. A separate Atlantic piece argues that if the US truly believes it is in an existential AI race with China, it should enforce strong chip export controls, block Chinese access to American compute, and remove domestic barriers to AI diffusion, but in practice competition with China is invoked to justify urgency without translating into corresponding policy action.