Constructing candid, peaceful coexistence

With data showing that cooperation has directly benefited US workers, farmers and families, the steady, sound and sustainable development of China-US relations is beneficial to all

The China-US summit in Beijing last month has established a new vision for relations between China and the United States. It falls upon the two nations’ shoulders to maintain the period of relative strategic calm in bilateral ties. As the two most consequential actors in the global system, it also behooves them, working with the other major countries, to establish an international system based on a broad consensus that is just and fair to all.

China and the US have previously succeeded in utilizing the “steering wheel” of head-of-state diplomacy to hold their bilateral relationship in good stead for the past five decades, instilling greater predictability and stability in ties. Over the past year, both sides have artfully deployed points of selective leverage vis-a-vis the other and created a rough-and-ready equilibrium in their trade and technology policy dealings. The next year will be crucial for whether this equilibrium can be broadened to the larger political and security relations. With multiple presidential meetings fulfilled or slated during this year, the Beijing meeting served as a new starting point in framing a relationship of candid, clear-eyed and peaceful coexistence.

The empirical record of the past decade reveals a more nuanced truth: cooperation with Beijing has, in specific and critical sectors, directly advanced the economic security of US workers, farmers and families. A clear-eyed assessment of this track record shows that it is a strategic necessity to build a “win-win” framework for the future — one built on proven mutual interest rather than naive optimism.

The US agricultural sector has been the most consistent beneficiary of stable ties. Despite geopolitical turbulence, China remains the largest export market for US agriculture, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the US’ total agricultural overseas sales, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In 2023 alone, US farm exports to China topped $29 billion. This demand has been a critical price floor for rural communities, directly supporting farm incomes and local agribusinesses. For US farmers, access to the Chinese market is far from an abstract concept, but a core component of their balance sheets.

Chinese enterprises have become significant contributors to US industrial job creation and supply chain resilience. This is most visible in the clean energy sector, where Chinese manufacturers are responding to Inflation Reduction Act incentives by building US-side factories. For example, Longi & Invenergy’s joint venture in Ohio has invested $600 million in a 5GW solar panel plant, creating at least 850 local jobs. Trina Solar has established a major module facility in Texas, generating employment for 1,500 local people. Beyond solar, Chinese investment underpins core US industries. GE Appliances (Haier) is executing a $3 billion, five-year US expansion plan, directly adding over 1,000 manufacturing jobs in Kentucky and the Southeast. In biopharma, BeiGene’s $800 million biologics campus in New Jersey has established a new hub for cancer therapy production, employing hundreds of US scientists and technicians. These investments demonstrate that Chinese companies can be partners in rebuilding the US’ industrial base when the regulatory framework aligns.

Perhaps the starkest example of mutual interest is in counternarcotics. Data shows that when US-China law enforcement cooperation is functional, it yields tangible results. Following the resumption of the bilateral working group and China’s tightening of precursor chemical controls, the US saw a 27 percent year-on-year decline in drug overdose deaths in 2024 — the lowest level since 2019. The two sides’ counternarcotics collaboration, which includes intelligence sharing and chemical scheduling, is a direct contributor to saving US lives and strengthening homeland security.

History provides the substantive basis for the practical way forward. The goal is not to ignore competition but to compartmentalize it. A durable framework would leverage these proven areas of mutual gain — agriculture, selective industrial investment, and public health — as stabilizing ballast. It would institutionalize safeguards to protect critical US technologies while allowing the economic and public health benefits that have demonstrably accrued to US households to continue.

This realism can continue and evolve from the recent meeting in Beijing. As the US and China are the two foremost countries in the international system today, a stable and forward-looking bilateral relationship is a necessary ingredient for the reform of the United Nations-centered multilateral system. The greater the flux in the system, the greater must be the sense of responsibility on both sides to place restraints on the use of force. Major power diplomacy can play a pathfinder role in managing global hot spots and devising bridging solutions to these challenges, including to the fraught Persian Gulf situation. For this to be the case though, they must maintain justice in international affairs and craft a framework of ties that keeps tensions within a manageable range and prioritizes a constructive working relationship in areas of common interest without trampling on the other side’s system, values and regional commitments.

The author is a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies based in Washington DC.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.