China’s President Xi Jinping hailed on Thursday a “new positioning” of ties with the United States that envisages cooperation with measured competition, following his summit with President Donald Trump.
Xi said both leaders agreed that building a constructive, strategically stable relationship would guide ties in the next three years and beyond, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
Xi described such ties as based primarily on cooperation but with measured competition for “a normal stability in which differences are controllable, and a lasting stability in which peace can be expected”, the ministry added.
He called for both countries to widen exchanges and cooperation in trade, health, agriculture, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, and law enforcement, it said.
Even as Xi talked up cooperation, he stressed “utmost caution” by the United States in handling the issue of Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by China, although Taipei rejects the contention.
“If handled poorly, the two countries could collide or even enter into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into an extremely dangerous situation,” the Chinese leader said.
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China, US should be ‘partners, not rivals’: Xi tells Trump in Beijing
Meanwhile, Xi also told Trump on Thursday that Washington and Beijing should be “partners, not rivals” as the two leaders met in the Chinese capital.
China and the US “both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” Xi said in opening remarks at the Great Hall of the People, China’s ceremonial state building, adding that the meeting had drawn global attention.
“We should help each other succeed, prosper together, and find the right way for major countries to get along in the new era,” he said.
Xi said the world was undergoing transformations “not seen in a century” and described the international situation as fluid and turbulent, adding that it had reached “a new crossroads.”
He said China and the US faced questions “vital to history, to the world, and to the people,” including whether they could “create a new paradigm of major country relations,” jointly address global challenges, and “provide more stability for the world.”
“They are the questions of our times that you and I need to answer as leaders of major countries,” Xi said.
Saying he “always believed” Beijing and Washington had “more common interests than differences,” Xi added that one country’s success represented “an opportunity for the other,” and that stable bilateral ties were beneficial for the world.
Xi noted that he looked forward to further discussions on issues important to both countries and the wider international community, and to working with Trump “to set the course for and steer the giant ship of China-US relations,” with the aim of making 2026 “a historic landmark year” that opens “a new chapter” in bilateral ties.
