President Donald Trump concluded his more than 36-hour visit to Beijing on Friday, May 15, after holding discussions with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a range of major issues, including Iran, Taiwan, energy supply routes, trade, and technology.
Trump arrived in Beijing on May 14 and held summit-level talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People before attending a welcoming banquet hosted by the Chinese leader later in the evening.
At the banquet, Trump described the visit as an “important one” and said the discussions had been “positive and constructive.” He also characterized the U.S.-China relationship as one of the most “consequential relationships in world history.”
Earlier during bilateral talks, Xi emphasized China’s commitment to “steady, sound and sustainable” development of ties with Washington and outlined what he described as four forms of stability to guide future relations, according to a statement released Thursday, May 14, by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“‘Constructive strategic stability’ 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,” Xi said, according to the statement.
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“Building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability is not a slogan. It means actions in the same direction.”
Calls for managing tensions and maintaining stable ties appeared repeatedly throughout official messaging following the summit. The word “stability” appeared multiple times in the Chinese government’s summary of the talks.
A White House official told reporters after the summit that Trump and Xi agreed Iran should not possess nuclear weapons and that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to navigation without militarization or shipping tolls, according to NHK World Japan.
China also reportedly expressed interest in increasing purchases of U.S. crude oil and American agricultural products amid ongoing global energy market disruptions linked to tensions in the Middle East.
Taiwan remains a sensitive point
Although the U.S. side made no public comments on Taiwan during the Beijing meetings, Chinese officials described the issue as the most important matter in bilateral relations.
“If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy,” Xi said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.
Beijing described maintaining “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait as the “biggest common denominator” between the two countries and urged Washington to handle the matter cautiously.
“‘Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” the statement quoted Xi as saying.
While Trump avoided public remarks on Taiwan, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during an interview with NBC News in Beijing that Washington’s position on the issue remains unchanged.
“From our perspective, any forced change in the status quo and the situation that’s there now would be bad for both countries,” Rubio said.
Rubio added that the United States agrees on the importance of maintaining “strategic stability” and constructive engagement with China to avoid misunderstandings that could escalate into broader conflict.
Responding indirectly to Beijing’s emphasis on Taiwan, Rubio told NBC anchor Tom Llamas that “anything that would compel or force a change in what we have now would be problematic and that we would certainly, our policies on that have not changed. It’s been pretty consistent across multiple presidential administrations and remains consistent now.”
