At a moment when technological rivalry between Washington and Beijing has grown into one of the defining tensions of the age, Treasury Secretary Henry Bessent and China's He Lifeng are preparing to meet — not to declare victory or assign blame, but to ask whether two competing powers can find a way to coexist across the fault lines of artificial intelligence and rare earth supply chains. The conversation is rare in its ambition: high-level, economically focused, and oriented toward possibility rather than grievance. History will note that in the autumn of 2026, both sides chose, at least brief