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Xi Jinping's US State Visit: China and US Announce New "Constructive Strategic Stability" Framework
Reporter 欧亚时报编辑部
From September 23 to 25, 2026, local time, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the United States at the invitation of President Donald Trump. It was the first time in eleven years that Xi had arrived in Washington on a state visit, and his fifth visit to the United States since being elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012. During the visit, the two heads of state held talks and exchanged views in depth, reaching an eight-point consensus on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues. The first and foremost point was that the two sides agreed to build a "China-US constructive strategic stability relationship based on respect, fairness and parity." Chinese official media described this new characterization of the relationship as a historic, milestone moment.
The visit reciprocated Trump's state visit to China in May of this year. The fact that the two countries' heads of state exchanged visits within just six months is relatively rare in recent China-US relations. Public records show that Xi made his first state visit to the United States in September 2015; this was his second state visit and his fifth trip to the US as China's top leader. According to the White House schedule, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan arrived at Joint Base Andrews on September 23, where Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted them and held a welcoming ceremony; the two sides later toured the National Archives, home to some of the United States' founding documents, together.
This new characterization was not raised for the first time in September. From May 12 to 15 this year, Trump made a state visit to China — his second state visit to the country in nine years. During that visit, the two sides had already set out a preliminary version of the "China-US constructive strategic stability relationship," using language describing "positive stability led mainly by cooperation, healthy stability with competition kept within bounds, normalized stability with manageable differences, and enduring stability with peace within reach." Xi's September visit to the US built on that foundation, further clarifying that the framework is "based on respect, fairness and parity," developing it from a general-principle consensus into a more complete and operational political arrangement.
According to the joint announcement from both sides, the "constructive strategic stability relationship" is defined as being based on mutual respect, fairness and parity, intended to provide a predictable, manageable political framework for a China-US relationship long marked by competition and differences, so as to prevent the relationship from sliding into confrontation or conflict. During the state visit, Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng published a signed article in the People's Daily summarizing the framework on three levels: grasping the mainstream and anchoring positive stability led by cooperation; learning from each other and shaping healthy stability with competition kept within bounds; and respecting each other and maintaining normalized stability with differences kept manageable. He said the next key step was to "take action and implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state to the letter," turning the new characterization into concrete measures.
The eight-point consensus also included a number of specific arrangements. The two sides agreed to support each other in successfully hosting the APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting and the G20 Leaders' Summit, with both heads of state expressing their intention to attend the meetings hosted by the other side. The two leaders also jointly recalled the history of China and the United States as allies who fought side by side and won victory in World War II. They expressed common positions on regional and global issues including the Iranian nuclear issue and the right of passage through international waterways, stressing that Iran should honor its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons and that no country or institution should impose passage fees on international waterways. The two countries' counter-narcotics law enforcement agencies also reported visible joint results in cross-border enforcement against new psychoactive substances and precursor chemicals.
On the economic, trade and technology front, the two heads of state recognized the recent positive results achieved through the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism, including progress on establishing a trade council, a $30 billion bilateral reciprocal tariff reduction arrangement, and a further extension of the phased arrangement previously reached in trade talks in Kuala Lumpur. The two sides also agreed to establish a China-US artificial intelligence dialogue mechanism to exchange views on the risks and benefits associated with AI, with the next round of dialogue planned for November. These two concrete outcomes are seen as early demonstrations of the "constructive strategic stability relationship" framework being put into practice, though analysts note that within the broader results of the meeting, they functioned more as specific, actionable instruments rather than as the core agenda of the visit.
International opinion on the state visit, however, has not been entirely uniform. Analysis from the US think tank the Brookings Institution noted that the summit overall displayed a pattern of "heavy on gesture, light on substance": the two sides did not announce binding new commitments or procurement agreements on issues previously seen as top priorities, such as supply chains for rare earths and other critical minerals, or fentanyl control. By contrast, China's gains from the new "constructive strategic stability relationship" phrasing, along with what were seen as rhetorical concessions by Trump on the Taiwan issue, were viewed as the more notable achievements for Beijing from this visit. The institution also noted that the US side focused more on commercial issues such as trade and investment, while China placed greater emphasis on establishing a new political framework for the bilateral relationship — a difference in emphasis that itself reflects the two countries' current strategic calculations.
Chinese state media gave the visit extensive, high-profile coverage. Xinhua, the People's Daily and other outlets ran a series of front-page commentary articles describing the visit as having "provided new strategic guidance for China-US relations" and "opened an important new chapter critical to the two countries' relationship." The articles cited assessments from various sectors in the United States saying the visit would help stabilize relations between the two countries, reduce the risk of miscalculation, and inject certainty into an international order undergoing deep adjustment.
Analysts generally believe that the new "constructive strategic stability relationship" characterization builds on the communication foundation gradually accumulated through previous summits between the two leaders, including in Bali, Indonesia, and Busan, South Korea, and represents an interim attempt by both sides — after years of trade friction, technology restrictions and geopolitical tension — to set a floor for their competitive relationship while leaving room for cooperation. Whether specialized, institutionalized communication channels such as the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism and the artificial intelligence dialogue mechanism can keep functioning in the coming months will be the key test of whether this new framework is truly "implemented on the ground."
Looking back over the past several years, China-US relations have moved through a trajectory from the sudden escalation of trade friction in 2018, to the phased easing established at the Busan summit between the two heads of state in October 2025, and on to the reciprocal state visits of May and September 2026. Most observers believe the introduction of the "constructive strategic stability relationship" framework marks a transition for the bilateral relationship from a stage of crisis management to a new stage of institutionalized, mechanism-based management of differences and cooperation. However, the two sides' fundamental positions on structural points of contention — including the Taiwan issue, export controls and technological competition — have not changed, meaning the new framework will continue to face tests in the period ahead.
