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There was a lot of grand talk about stabilizing the relationship, and few deliverables.
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a welcome ceremony with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026.
U.S. President Donald Trump made his long awaited trip to China this week, arriving in the country on May 13 and holding a bilateral meeting, as well as a state banquet, with China’s Xi Jinping on May 14. He will have tea and lunch with Xi on May 15 before departing for Washington. Trump’s visit marked the first by a U.S. president to China since 2017 – during Trump’s first term.
From Beijing, Trump and Xi promised a new era for the bilateral relationship. Xi even presented an entirely new formula: “building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.” According to the readout from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that means “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.”
