During U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to China on May 13-15, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump agreed on a new vision of relations between the two countries. Their joint decision to work toward building a constructive bilateral relationship of strategic stability to enhance China-U.S. cooperation and manage differences brings certainty into global development.
Xi defined the nature of “constructive strategic stability” as positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, healthy stability with competition within proper limits, constant stability with manageable differences, and lasting stability with expectable peace.
Observers from China and abroad believe that the message is clear: Rivalry may continue, but conflict should not define the relationship.
New positioning
Anthony Moretti, an associate professor in the Communication and Organizational Leadership Department at Robert Morris University in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, commented to Beijing Review that as China and the U.S. have agreed to work toward building a bilateral relationship of “constructive strategic stability,” the global community wants to see them create the necessary structure to do so.
Such a structure is crucial at a time when the world is facing fragmentation, unilateralism, tensions and wars. Moretti said the foundation for that structure should be a willingness for cooperation, competition managed creatively and not destructively, an understanding that differences must be discussed openly and a firm commitment to peace.
The state visit of Trump to China and agreement on the new framework redefine the most consequential relationship on Earth by putting cooperation first, Arnaud Bertrand, an entrepreneur, China watcher and commentator on the social media platform X, commented on the platform.
“We have been told for years that the so-called Thucydides Trap was foredoomed and we were in a new Cold War, and that great power conflict was just around the corner. And yet here we are: the U.S. president in Beijing agreeing to the exact opposite,” he said.
Li Cheng, a professor of political science at the University of Hong Kong School of Governance and Policy, said in an interview with China Newsweek magazine that the summit’s most immediate achievement was simple but essential: Stopping China-U.S. ties from going into a “free fall.”
According to Li, “constructive strategic stability” does not mean eliminating competition. The real challenges facing China and the U.S. are not each other, but shared global risks including AI governance, climate change, terrorism and economic instability.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on May 16 that China and the United States agreed to continue implementing outcomes reached in previous talks and formed positive consensus on relevant tariff arrangements.
According to a fact sheet released by the White House portal, the leaders reached consensus on several issues that “will enhance stability and confidence for businesses and consumers around the world.”
“We have not seen a substantive presidential agreement in a very long time. At least this is now official—U.S. accepts the framework proposed by China. It is unprecedented,” Liang Yan, a professor of economics at Willamette University in the United States, told Beijing Review.
Liang said the two sides might have different interpretations of the terms: For the Trump administration, it is still transactional, constructive and stable for business relations, so fairness and reciprocity matter. For China, it is strategic, with the emphasis on restraint to manage rivalry.
“Despite different understandings, it is the first time, at least since [the presidency of Bill] Clinton, that the relationship is defined less by competition than cooperation,” she said.
Cooperation over confrontation
People-to-people exchanges can help reshape mutual perceptions, Li said. A Pew Research Center survey released earlier this year showed that positive perception of China is growing among Americans.
According to the survey, involving around 11,000 respondents in January and March, 27 percent of Americans now see China favorably, up 6 percentage points from last year and nearly double the figure in 2023.
It also noted that younger Americans hold more positive views of China than older adults. About 34 percent of adults under 50 have a favorable opinion of China, compared with only 19 percent of those aged 50 and above.
Adrian Vermeule, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, told Beijing Review that younger generations in America are less interested than their elders in obsolete ideological confrontation with China, a hangover of the Cold War era. “They are instead more curious and respectful about Chinese civilization,” he said.
Li also noted that despite strategic competition, economic interdependence between the two countries remains strong. “If China-U.S. relations remain in prolonged tension, or worse, slide into confrontation, there will be no winners,” he said.
According to Bertrand, the costs of confrontation have also exceeded what America can bear. Outcomes forced by structure outlast those driven by sentiment.
Unless the current landscape changes, then the trend is toward peaceful coexistence of China and the U.S., simply because it is the only viable option, he said. –The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
