US ambassador to China: ‘Best thing’ from Xi visit ‘is to continue the conversation’

David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, defended President Trump on Friday as the U.S. leader concludes a lavish state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping without major agreements.

“The old adage of deliverables in a relationship that we have with China is really not measurable in many ways,” Perdue said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”

“In some ways, the best thing that we accomplished in this visit is to continue the conversation,” the former Georgia Senator added.

Several Republican lawmakers expressed outward displeasure with Trump’s decision to roll out the red carpet and greet Xi at Joint Base Andrews during the Chinese president’s arrival on Wednesday.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) called on the president in a Wednesday floor speech to “keep in mind” during his discussions with Xi that the Chinese leader is “a brutal, unelected, and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.”

When pressed by Fox News’s Bill Hemmer on Friday about whether there were “any breakthroughs” at this summit, Perdue said the leaders established an “AI dialogue” and a “crisis mechanism” for this developing technology.

“I believe that that’s going to be a platform that we can move forward on,” Perdue said.

“This is a very bumpy road we have with China,” he added. “We’re both trying to reach strategic stability, but that doesn’t mean status quo in trade or some of these other political areas. AI is one area that we’re trying to find a way to cooperate.”

Trump has largely brushed aside rising concerns about the potential dangers posed by developing advanced AI technology.

In a Truth Social post on Friday morning, the president called his discussion with Xi a “very productive meeting.”

“Tremendous things will be happening,” Trump wrote. “Like almost everyone else, he seemed to like calling the poorly and inaccurately named Artificial Intelligence to a far more accurate and important name, SUPER INTELLIGENCE. That would be ‘SUPER!’ Everyone last night agreed, also.”

Additionally, Perdue praised Trump for pressing Xi to suspend China’s support for Iran amid the U.S.’s ongoing military operations against the country.

“President Trump did a great job making sure China knows this is unacceptable,” Perdue said. “We’ve seen some movement over the last month as well, but this isn’t the first time President Trump has brought it up with President Xi.”