President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump held formal talks on the morning of May 14 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, concluding with a joint commitment to what Xi called “a new vision of building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability”—a framework that, per the Chinese readout, “will provide strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations over the next three years and beyond.” The day included a 21-gun salute on Tiananmen Square, a Trump review of the People’s Liberation Army honor guard, a joint visit by the two leaders to the Temple of Heaven, and a state banquet at which Trump called Xi a “friend.” It is the first state visit by a sitting US president to China since Trump’s visit nine years ago.
Xi opened the talks with this framing: that “transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe,” and that the central question facing the two governments is whether China and the United States can “overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations.” He defined “constructive strategic stability” through four formulations—"positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, healthy stability with competition within proper limits, constant stability with manageable differences, and lasting stability with expectable peace"—and stressed that cooperation is not a slogan: “It means actions in the same direction.”
On economics, Xi referred to the Scott Bessent-He Lifeng preparatory talks held in South Korea on Wednesday, which “produced generally balanced and positive outcomes.” He called the result “good news for the people of the two countries and the world.” He invited expanded U.S. business participation in China’s reform and opening up, and proposed broadened cooperation in trade, health, agriculture, tourism, people-to-people exchange, and law enforcement.
Trump’s tone was notably warm. He told Xi that “the United States and China have a very good relationship” and that he and Xi “have had the longest and greatest relationship the presidents of the two countries have ever had,” according to a Chinese readout. He called Xi “a great leader” leading “a great country,” said he has “tremendous respect for President Xi and the Chinese people,” and described the meeting as “the biggest summit the world is watching.” He pledged to “work together with President Xi to strengthen communication and cooperation, properly handle differences, make bilateral relations better than ever before and embrace a fantastic future,” and added that “the United States and China are the most important and most powerful countries in the world. Together, we can do a lot of big and good things for our two countries and the world.” Trump invited Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan to make a state visit to Washington in September. The two leaders also agreed to support each other in hosting the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and the G20 Summit later this year, with Trump hosting G20 in Miami and Xi hosting APEC in Guangzhou.