U.S. President Donald Trump bids farewell to President Xi Jinping at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, May 15. UPI-Yonhap
China and the United States may have agreed to establish a "constructive" relationship characterised by "strategic stability" but deep-seated differences have left the future shape of the relationship looking uncertain, a forum in Beijing heard on Saturday.
Looking ahead to President Xi Jinping's possible U.S. visit later this year, Sun Yun, director of the China programme at U.S. think tank the Stimson Centre, said such trips typically required a list of deliverables, "but to my knowledge, both the two sides have not reached any consensus on what that deliverable package will look like".
Sun told the World Peace Forum held by Tsinghua University: "The two leaders have reached the consensus to establish a constructive relationship of strategic stability, but both sides do not have a shared consensus as for what exactly it means."
She also highlighted a fundamental difference in priorities, with Beijing focusing on the constructive aspects such as cooperation while Washington was more concerned about how to manage disputes.
