President Donald Trump is hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week.

Their countries are in a growing economic and tech fight.

The fight is mainly about artificial intelligence.

Neither side expects a big deal.

But both want to steady their weak ties.

This is their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House.

Sen. Steve Daines is a Montana Republican.

He advises Trump on China.

He said the meeting and the talks matter.

The outcome also matters.

Former Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai said the two countries always have problems.

Sometimes the problems are very big.

But they will try to keep things stable overall.

Xi's visit is his first to Washington in 10 years.

It comes after last year's intense trade war.

Both sides raised tariffs then.

China also limited critical mineral supplies.

Both sides want stability.

They have deeply competitive reasons.

Evan Medeiros said this.

He works for The Asia Group consultancy.

He described them as two strongmen circling each other.

Da Wei works at Tsinghua University.

He said the countries may enter a "new normal" of overall stability.

He said they need to move fast on deals.

Their governments must be able to carry out these deals.

AI is a key battleground.

Trump has said whoever wins AI wins.

He claimed Monday that the U.S. leads China.

China's security minister is Chen Yixin.

He warned in a rare essay.

He said AI threatens Communist Party rule.

This happens if hostile forces gain superior capabilities.

The U.S. restricts AI chip exports to China.

It accuses Chinese developers of extracting American models at scale.

Beijing says the practice is widely used.

It criticizes U.S. efforts to monopolize the industry.

Still, the two sides are taking a small step on AI.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. proposed a "notification mechanism."

This is for AI incidents affecting national security.

Both countries still blacklist individual companies.

They also ban specific products.

The U.S. has targeted Chinese telecom and surveillance equipment.

It also targets firms accused of forced labor in Xinjiang.

It targets advanced robots and drones too.

Beijing responded with export controls on drones.

It blacklisted six U.S. companies over Xinjiang-related measures.

The Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs this year.

After that, the administration imposed them in other ways.

The White House set a 12.5% tariff in July.

This tariff is on imports from 60 trading partners.

China is one of them.

It plans an extra 7.5% tariff on China.

Analysts say current tariff levels are acceptable to both sides.

But a significant uptick could renew tensions.

On Iran, Washington is pressing to isolate Tehran.

But Beijing insists on its right to trade with Iran.

Trump paused a large weapons package to Taiwan.

This was after his May trip to Beijing.

Analysts say Xi will likely press him.

Xi wants him to delay arms sales further.