Song Guoyou
US-China relations are the most important bilateral relationship in the world today. The trajectory not only affects the well-being of the people of both nations but also shapes the direction of the global landscape and international security and stability. China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Summit held in Beijing in May 2026 was a pivotal strategic dialogue that took place amid profound adjustments to the international order and following a prolonged period of volatility and friction in China-U.S. relations. The most significant political outcome of this summit was that the two presidents reached a strategic consensus and formally established a new developmental framework for a constructive strategic stability relationship between China and the United States.
A constructive strategic stability relationship specifically encompasses four core dimensions: positive stability based on cooperation; benign stability with measured competition; normal stability with manageable differences; and enduring stability with prospects for peace. This comprehensive and multidimensional framework for major-power relations breaks through the inherent misconceptions of traditional zero-sum games between major powers, provides a new paradigm for constructive interaction among major powers in the new era, and holds significant historical importance. At the same time, compared with the strategic misalignment toward China during the Trump administration’s first term, these four principles of stability also provide a clear roadmap for the U.S. side to correct its perceptions, adjust its policies, and reshape a healthy and stable bilateral relationship.
In building a constructive strategic stability relationship between China and the U.S., positive stability centered on cooperation serves as the primary foundation. Positive stability makes mutual benefit and cooperation the main theme of bilateral relations, proactively identifies areas of shared interest, and uses pragmatic cooperation to build consensus and mitigate differences. During the Trump administration’s first term, the U.S. deviated from the objective trend of China-U.S. cooperation, adhered to a confrontational mindset, and recklessly imposed trade sanctions, erected technological barriers, and pushed for industrial decoupling. This led to the stagnation and regression of pragmatic cooperation between China and the U.S. in many areas and dealt a severe blow to global industrial and supply chains. Such irrational measures ultimately backfired on the United States itself, triggering a series of deep-seated problems, including high domestic inflation, industrial hollowing-out, and rising living costs. The facts have amply demonstrated that containment and confrontation with China serve no purpose; win-win cooperation is the only right path. The Trump administration 2.0 should thoroughly learn from past lessons, abandon zero-sum games and hegemonic thinking, face the reality of the deep intertwining of U.S.-China interests, proactively restart economic and trade cooperation, lift unreasonable unilateral sanctions and technology blockades, establish a platform for regular cooperation, and use solid, mutually beneficial cooperation to lay a stable and positive foundation for bilateral relations.
On the basis of cooperation, upholding a healthy and stable level of competition is a fundamental principle and strategic boundary that China and the United States, as major powers, must strictly adhere to. Development disparities and sectoral competition between major powers are a normal feature of international relations; completely eliminating competition is unrealistic. However, competition must strictly observe bottom lines and defined boundaries, and eliminate extreme pressure tactics and vicious games. The core strategic misstep of the Trump administration’s first term lay in distorting the nature of U.S.-China competition, transforming the healthy competition in economic, trade, technological, and cultural spheres into a vicious game of bloc confrontation, technological blockades, and geopolitical encirclement, which led to the continued deterioration of U.S.-China relations. To reshape a framework of healthy competition, the U.S. must reconstruct its understanding of rational competition and its system of rules, clearly recognizing that U.S.-China competition is a healthy contest of development models and governance capabilities. It must adhere to the bottom lines of not infringing upon China’s core interests, not maliciously containing China’s development, and not inciting bloc confrontation, ensuring that competition remains firmly within the framework of established rules.
Establishing a stable normal state where differences are manageable is the key to ensuring that China and the U.S. avoid strategic miscalculations and defuse potential risks; it is also a strategic shortcoming that the U.S. urgently needs to address. Given the inherent differences in the national conditions, systems, and interests of China and the U.S., differences and contradictions will objectively exist for the long term. The core of maintaining bilateral stability does not lie in eliminating these differences, but in managing them and containing risks through institutionalized mechanisms. During the first term of the Trump administration, there was a prolonged lack of stable bilateral communication mechanisms. The administration habitually exaggerated routine differences and amplified localized conflicts, frequently resorting to unilateral sanctions, public opinion pressure, and confrontational tactics to address bilateral issues. This led to the continuous escalation of minor frictions and the transformation of localized issues into overarching confrontations, leaving U.S.-China relations in a prolonged state of disorder, chaos, and instability. In response, the U.S. side needs to establish a multi-tiered, regularized system for managing differences, keep communication channels open at all levels, and firmly uphold the bottom line of stability in bilateral relations.
By taking a big-picture perspective and working toward lasting stability and the prospect of peace, the Beijing summit has made a tremendous contribution to human society and global peace. This lasting stability transcends the limitations of short-term, utilitarian games; grounded in the fundamental interests of the peoples of both countries and the broader context of global peace and development, it has charted a long-term course for U.S.-China relations to avoid war. The Trump administration’s short-sighted and utilitarian policy toward China during its first term severely eroded bilateral political trust, undermined the foundation of peaceful coexistence, and left U.S.-China relations mired in long-term uncertainty. Achieving lasting peace and stability requires the U.S. side to thoroughly abandon Cold War mentality and hegemonic logic, acknowledge the historical trend of China’s peaceful development, and renounce the erroneous strategy of comprehensive containment and suppression. At the same time, it must proactively fulfill its responsibilities as a major power, actively engage in global governance cooperation, work hand in hand with China to address various global challenges, uphold the stability of the international order with the sense of responsibility befitting a major power, and ensure that peaceful coexistence and mutual benefit between China and the U.S. become the long-term norm.
[Dr. SONG Guoyoua professor and deputy director of the Center for American Studies of Fudan University, China.]
