Xi steers China-US relations toward stability

BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping is set to travel to Washington for a state visit and a high-stakes meeting with US 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-US 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-US relations have moved forward along the track charted by the two leaders. "Head-of-state diplomacy is the anchor of China-US relations," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday in a phone call with US 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-US relations, and build the edifice of the relationship one story at a time -- making it stronger, taller and more glorious.