Xi and Trump Hold Summit in Beijing Amid Deepening US-China Rivalry

President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump held a summit in Beijing on Thursday where the two leaders agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability. Xi Jinping said the two leaders had reached this agreement, according to the official Chinese readout of the meeting.

He stated that building this stability was the overriding priority and their competition must remain controlled.

The official Chinese readout described the outcome of the Xi-Trump summit in these terms. South China Morning Post reported that Xi emphasised these points during the much-anticipated meeting. Zhao Minghao, deputy director of the Centre for American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University, offered a more measured assessment of the summit’s results.

“This new concept is aspirational, but it is not where the relationship actually is right now,” Zhao said. Zhao Minghao said the real test is how the two powers find ways to cooperate constructively within an inherently competitive relationship. He stated that major disagreements such as US military deployment in the Asia-Pacific will persist.

Despite those differences, Zhao Minghao said Beijing and Washington could pursue practical cooperation in areas like non-sensitive trade and AI safety. He predicted more coordination in areas such as artificial intelligence governance as well as the board of trade and board of investment initiatives currently under discussion.

The summit took place against a backdrop of deepening rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.

Xi Jinping’s formulation of “strategic stability” seeks to set guardrails on that competition while leaving room for targeted collaboration.