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# Washington's AI Improv Hour, Money Moving Fast, AI, Chips, and the Fine Print
- URL: https://adjacent.media/scan/2026-09-22-am/
- Published: 2026-09-22T10:09:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T10:09:47.000Z
- Description: The AI diplomacy track is suddenly the most interesting subplot in US-China relations — incident alerts, warning systems, a dialogue ahead of Trump-Xi — while at home the White House can’t explain what it actually announced last week.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #scan-am, #scan

The AI diplomacy track is suddenly the most interesting subplot in US-China relations — incident alerts, warning systems, a dialogue ahead of Trump-Xi — while at home the White House can't explain what it actually announced last week. China's stock stamp duty is up 80%+ on an AI trading frenzy, and Jensen Huang is saying the quiet part loud.

> **$32.3B** — China's stamp duty haul on stock sales, Jan-Aug, up 80%+ YoY as an AI-driven trading boom juices volumes. *(SCMP)*

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### Machines & Minds

#### [Trump now says he wants to form an 'AI Force'](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/997867/trump-ai-force-ai-czar?ref=adjacent.media)

A Truth Social post has become policy. *(The Verge)*

#### [The White House will not say what Trump's AI Force is](https://thenextweb.com/news/white-house-ai-force-no-detail?ref=adjacent.media)

Two days later, nobody in the building can define the thing that was announced. *(The Next Web)*

#### [The US has proposed an AI incident alert system to China](https://thenextweb.com/news/us-china-ai-incident-alert-bessent-he-lifeng?ref=adjacent.media)

The more substantive AI-and-China story of the week, buried under czar chatter. *(The Next Web)*

#### [U.S. and China Discuss System to Warn of A.I. National Security Issues](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/business/us-china-ai-warning-system-national-security.html?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Bessent and He Lifeng talking shared vision ahead of the Trump-Xi summit — worth watching more than the AI Force theater. *(NYT)*

#### [A detailed recap of the White House's 19-day standoff with Anthropic](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/09/20/anthropic-white-house-ai-01085212?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Officials bluntly ordered Dario Amodei to pull Fable over a jailbreak dispute — the regulatory posture in one anecdote. *(Politico)*

### Connected World

#### [How the Clarity Act collapsed in the Senate](https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/crypto-blew-its-big-momentand-the-blame-game-has-begun-dff66a10?st=8EbDYo&ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Crypto had the votes and the lobbying muscle and still torched its own bill — the blame game is the real story. *(WSJ)*

#### [China Promised to Buy More U.S. Farm Goods. It Hasn't Happened.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/business/china-agriculture-trade-soybeans.html?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Beijing's trade-commitment fulfillment remains selective, soybeans notwithstanding. *(NYT)*

#### [Eric Schmidt-backed drone startups to split 60,000-unit Pentagon order](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/drone-startups-backed-eric-schmidt-trump-family-win-pentagons-latest-competition?ref=adjacent.media)

No China-made parts required — the defense-tech supply chain rewrite continues. *(The Information)*

### Machines & Minds

#### [Jensen Huang says AI leaders calling for regulation actually want relief from existing laws](https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-jensen-huang-ai-regulation-anthropic-amodei-openai-altman-trump-2026-9?ref=adjacent.media)

Huang's not wrong that "please regulate us" often means "please regulate my competitor." *(Business Insider)*

#### [Chinese memory-maker CXMT claims DRAM production breakthrough](https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/09/21/chinese-memory-maker-cxmt-claims-dram-production-breakthrough/5297633?ref=adjacent.media)

Another data point in the memory-chip self-sufficiency push, whatever "claims" ends up meaning in practice. *(The Register)*

> “If we are thinking about AI just in terms of how do we cure cancer or get better energy, you can do that without...” — *Obama, on agentic AI (Marginal Revolution)*