Xi steers China-U.S. relations toward stability

BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to travel to Washington for a state visit and a high-stakes meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

With the upcoming visit, the two presidents are expected to complete reciprocal visits within months. The trip will be Xi's second state visit to the United States following his first in 2015.

More than a decade on, the world's most important bilateral relationship has followed a bumpy course. How Beijing and Washington manage ties -- and find room to work together -- is increasingly consequential for both countries and the world.

NEW VISION

In May, as Xi hosted Trump in Beijing, he opened their talks with three questions:

"Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide greater stability for the world? Can we build a bright future together for our bilateral relations in the interest of the well-being of the two peoples and the future of humanity?"

The questions were raised against the backdrop of years of turbulence in bilateral ties, from trade disputes to tech curbs. Xi has repeatedly stressed the need to find the right way for the world's two major countries to get along.

The Beijing summit gave renewed momentum to that effort. Xi and Trump have agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability over the next three years and beyond.

"It marks the first time in more than a decade that China and the United States established a consensus about how to define the relationship that leaders on both sides broadly recognize," said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University.

For a while now, China-U.S. relations have moved forward along the track charted by the two leaders. "Head-of-state diplomacy is the anchor of China-U.S. relations," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in preparation for the upcoming summit.

Since Trump's re-election, Xi has maintained contact with him through various means, like face-to-face meetings and phone calls, sometimes in a casual format.

During the May visit, Xi invited Trump to Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in central Beijing, for a private meeting -- an invitation extended to few foreign leaders.

Xi and Trump strolled in the garden, chatting and pausing now and then to admire the towering ancient trees and Chinese roses in full blossom.

"While President Trump hopes to make America great again, I am dedicated to leading the Chinese people toward national rejuvenation," Xi said later as the two leaders sat down for a conversation over tea.

He urged both sides to keep to the right direction, steer clear of disruptions and promote the steady development of bilateral relations.

Such moments away from the formal meeting table have become a feature of Xi's encounters with Trump, providing a more personal setting to learn about each other's countries and perspectives.

Similar interactions stretch back to Xi's first meeting with Trump in 2017. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private estate in Florida, Xi presented him with a piece of Chinese calligraphy bearing an ancient saying: "A nine-story tower rises from a heap of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

The message carried a metaphor for the relationship Xi hoped the two countries could build. He told Trump that the two leaders could rally those in both countries who shared the goodwill and enthusiasm for advancing China-U.S. relations, and build the edifice of the relationship one story at a time -- making it stronger, taller and more glorious.

BALLAST

Economic and trade relations should continue to serve as the "ballast" and driving force for China-U.S. relations, rather than a stumbling block or a point of friction, Xi told Trump in Busan, South Korea, in 2025. Xi has often likened China-U.S. relations to a giant ship, for which ballast is critical to staying on course through rough waters.

Following the surge of U.S. tariffs in 2025, Beijing responded with resolute countermeasures while continuing negotiations with Washington in an effort to manage their differences. By the time Xi and Trump met in Beijing, their economic and trade teams had reached "generally balanced and positive outcomes."

The dialogue has continued since, with their latest round of talks, which were candid, in-depth and constructive, concluded in New York on Sunday.

There is no winner in a trade war, Xi has repeatedly stressed, both in his exchanges with Trump and on the international stage. "Facts will prove that decoupling and cutting off supply chains will not hold back our development process, and espousing 'small yard, high fences' will only box oneself in and divide the world," Xi said at the just-concluded BRICS summit in New Delhi.

That message also lay at the center of Xi's outreach to the American business community. In March 2024, he met with representatives from U.S. business, strategic and academic communities in Beijing. He told the gathering that the respective success of China and the United States is an opportunity for each other.

During the May visit, Xi sat down with Trump in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing alongside more than a dozen executives from some of America's most preeminent companies, including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and Boeing.

Trump introduced the business leaders to Xi one by one, underscoring the weight he attached to the delegation.

"Each side, the United States and China, has a big stake in constructive strategic stability," said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a U.S. scholar and longtime observer of China.

From artificial intelligence and climate change mitigation to public health and counter-narcotics, there are plenty of issues that China and the United States are both involved in, he added.

Rather than expecting Washington and Beijing to suddenly work together perfectly, Kuhn said, the more immediate objective should be to prevent disputes over tariffs, critical minerals, and other issues that could lead to further escalation.

BRIDGING THE PACIFIC

"Friendship, which derives from close contact between the people, holds the key to sound state-to-state relations," Xi has said. For him, the foundation of China-U.S. relations was laid by the two peoples.

Upon the official announcement of Xi's U.S. visit on Monday, his recent reply to American university students was made public. In his letter, Xi encouraged them to foster greater mutual understanding and affinity between people of the two countries, and to promote the steady and sustained development of bilateral relations.

When China-U.S. relations were at a low ebb, Xi cast his eyes toward the future -- young people. The youth, he believes, carry the future and hope of this relationship.

During his 2023 trip to San Francisco for the APEC leaders' meeting, Xi announced an initiative to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study programs over the next five years. By May this year, that goal had been reached two and a half years ahead of schedule.

Many participants have written to Xi, thanking him for the opportunity to see China for themselves and forge friendships with their Chinese peers. Xi, in turn, has encouraged young people from both countries to become "envoys of friendship" bridging the Pacific.

A 2026 Reagan Institute Summer Survey found that younger Americans were significantly less likely to view China as a major threat to the United States.

That emphasis on people-to-people bonds extends beyond the younger generation. For decades, Xi has stayed in touch with his old friends in Iowa, whom he first met during his maiden trip to the United States in 1985, and corresponded with veterans of World War II's Flying Tigers, recalling the bonds forged between the two peoples during that time.

"We should build more bridges and pave more roads for people-to-people interactions," Xi once said. "We must not erect barriers or create a chilling effect."

Ahead of Xi's U.S. visit, another story of friendship across the Pacific went viral online.

In 1999, American teacher Ronald Sakolsky donated 5,000 U.S. dollars to support Chinese woman Yin Yuzhen's tree-planting efforts to combat desertification in north China's Inner Mongolia. With the funds, Yin went on to cultivate a forest of more than 50,000 trees.

When Sakolsky and Yin reunited in China in August, he was asked what message he wanted to take home to the United States. His answer was: "Bridge."

He said he believes the upcoming meeting between President Xi and President Trump could help build that bridge.

"China is ready to rebuild the bridge," Sakolsky said. "Is America ready? I believe so."