May 20, 2026 · 18 min · 8 segments
An audio version of “What the Trump-Xi Summit Revealed, and Left Unsaid, About U.S.-China Tech Competition,” a new Critical Questions by CSIS’s Lauryn Williams and Kuhu Badgi. This audio was generated…
What the Trump-Xi Summit Revealed and Left Unsaid About U.S.-China Tech Competition by CSIS's Lauren Williams and Kuhu Badji, published May 20, 2026.
This audio was generated with text-to-speech by 11 Labs.
Last week, President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, marking the first visit by a U.S. president to China since Trump's own 2017 visit.
The summit focused publicly on familiar pressure points in the US-China relationship, including trade tensions, Taiwan, and security concerns, including the continuing conflict in Iran.
But some of the most consequential dynamics shaping the relationship generated far fewer headlines, including intensifying geopolitical competition over technology, digital infrastructure, and economic security.
These issues, though not explicitly mentioned in either U.S. or Chinese meeting readouts, are no less critical to understanding both countries' strategic decision-making and contextualizing the summit's true significance.
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