Rep. Khanna calls for US-China AI treaty ahead of Trump tech summit

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Sep 29, 2026, 12:20 UTC

On September 29, 2026, Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, sent letters to a US intelligence agency calling for a formal treaty between the United States and China to limit the risks posed by artificial intelligence. The letters were shared exclusively with The Verge and timed to coincide with President Donald Trump's preparations to host a summit with technology and AI company CEOs in Washington. Khanna, who has been discussed as a possible future presidential contender, framed the proposal as a necessary step to prevent AI from causing widespread global harm.

The proposal sits at the intersection of two of the most contested policy areas in American politics: the US-China rivalry and AI governance. A formal treaty would require some degree of cooperation between two governments that are deeply at odds on technology competition, and observers have described the prospects of coordinating both leaderships on such an agreement as a long shot. The timing, coming as Trump was meeting with industry figures, implicitly raises the question of whether the administration's approach to AI, which leans heavily on domestic industry relationships, leaves room for the kind of multilateral risk management Khanna is proposing.

None of the three camps, Pro-AI, Anti-AI, or Middle Ground, had published reactions to this specific development at the time of writing. Pro-AI voices would typically argue that treaty negotiations risk constraining American innovation while doing little to guarantee Chinese compliance, giving Beijing a strategic advantage. Anti-AI advocates would generally welcome any international mechanism to slow or regulate AI development, viewing the absence of such agreements as a dangerous gap. Middle Ground commentators would likely support the principle of US-China dialogue on AI risk while expressing skepticism about whether a binding treaty is achievable given current diplomatic tensions, and would probably call for confidence-building measures as a more realistic starting point.

The key things to watch are whether the Trump administration responds to Khanna's letters, what posture the tech CEOs at the Washington summit take on international AI governance, and whether any formal diplomatic channel between US and Chinese officials on AI safety emerges in the months ahead.