Inflection Points Today
May 13, 2026
Frederick Kempe
The most dangerous misunderstanding between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of their summit is that both use the same word, “stability,” to achieve dramatically different futures.
Advancing stability, a senior US official involved in the planning for the summit told me, is the loftiest American goal for the meeting, irrespective of any specific deliverables. The official defined stability as a low but durable floor beneath the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship.
