China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, has spent the last year standing up to President Trump. He met triple-digit tariff with triple-digit tariff and restricted rare earth exports, forcing the Trump administration to back down. Both sides suffered, and so did the global economy.<\/p>\n
But having made his point, and established China as America\u2019s peer, Mr. Xi is now pivoting from retaliation to conciliation. At a summit in Beijing this week that he billed as historic, Mr. Xi offered Washington a choice: Accept China as an equal power with red lines that must not be crossed or continue in a cycle of conflict that risks a global \u201cThucydides Trap\u201d<\/a> of superpower collision.<\/p>\n He has given this new blueprint a new, if somewhat stilted, name: \u201cconstructive strategic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n He trotted out the term throughout the summit, a visit designed to show Mr. Trump what friendship could look like between the two countries, with pageantry in the cavernous rooms of the Great Hall of the People, a private tour of the Temple of Heaven and talks inside Zhongnanhai, the secretive walled compound of the Chinese leadership.<\/p>\n In some ways, the Trump administration was already playing by China\u2019s rules on this visit. The American president was largely deferential<\/a> to Mr. Xi. Mr. Trump lavished him with praise and refrained from pushing back when the Chinese leader issued a warning to the United States about treading carefully on the subject of Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by Beijing.<\/p>\n Redefining the terms of engagement<\/p>\n Mr. Xi spoke in lofty, abstract terms about what exactly constructive strategic stability entailed. He spoke of \u201ccooperation\u201d being a \u201cmainstay\u201d; \u201ccompetition within proper limits\u201d; \u201cmanageable differences\u201d and \u201cexpectable peace.\u201d<\/p>\n What that boils down to, said Xin Qiang, a U.S.-China expert at Fudan University in Shanghai, is the acknowledgment that competition is part of the relationship.<\/p>\n Despite that, the two countries can hold out hope that there are more reasons to cooperate than there are to clash. The summit underscored some of the ways in which they could potentially work together, such as combating the flow of fentanyl to the United States, setting ground rules<\/a> for artificial intelligence and resolving the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Is Washington on board with this?<\/p>\n China\u2019s official summary of the meeting said Mr. Trump agreed to Mr. Xi\u2019s new definition of the relationship. Though the White House made no mention of it in its own summary, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested in an interview with NBC on Friday that the Trump administration had endorsed the concept.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things the Chinese emphasize, which we agree, is strategic stability in our relationship, a constructive relationship, but also one that establishes strategic stability so that we don\u2019t have misunderstandings that could lead to broader conflict,\u201d Mr. Rubio said.<\/p>\n Just a few years ago, Beijing was vehemently opposed to a policy of the Biden administration called \u201cmanaged competition\u201d that has echoes of what Mr. Xi is proposing now. It entailed accepting that the two sides were rivals, but also imposing guardrails to prevent the relationship from veering into conflict. Beijing rejected that framework as a bid to contain China.<\/p>\n Why Mr. Xi is comfortable with the idea today could have much to do with the growing parity in power between China and the United States<\/a>. Beijing feels as though it can no longer be pushed around by Washington after fighting the Trump administration to a draw<\/a> during last year\u2019s trade war by threatening to throttle global supplies of critical minerals needed to make modern technologies.<\/p>\n Why Xi is ready to talk<\/p>\n At the same time, confrontation with the United States does China no favors. Its economy has been stagnant for years because of a property crisis, and it cannot afford any disruptions to global trade, its chief engine of growth.<\/p>\n Mr. Xi is signaling that he wants to lock in the current stalemate so that the Trump administration will not interfere with his greater vision for China\u2019s future: a country brimming with technological and industrial might poised to overtake a declining United States as the premier global power.<\/p>\n \u201cFor China, this phrase is about buying time and playing for advantage as Beijing tries to wait out the Trump administration,\u201d said Evan Medeiros, a Georgetown professor who was senior Asia director on the National Security Council under President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n \u201cChina wants to manage what they see as gradual U.S. decline in the hopes of both expediting it but also making it as non-disruptive as possible,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n China is playing the long game<\/p>\n The United States is no stranger to China\u2019s attempts to frame the two countries\u2019 relationship to its advantage.<\/p>\n Mr. Xi tried to sell Mr. Obama on what he called \u201ca new model of great power relations\u201d in 2013 that called on the United States to respect what China considers its core interests such as its claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea.<\/p>\n The Obama administration ultimately refused to endorse the concept, recognizing that it required ceding power in Asia and leaving allies and partners vulnerable.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a classic Chinese move which they try to get the United States to agree to a framework as a way to bind Washington and set the terms of the bilateral relationship going forward,\u201d Mr. Medeiros said of Mr. Xi\u2019s latest attempt.<\/p>\n \u201cThese phrases are geopolitical quick sand,\u201d he added. \u201cOnce you step in you cannot get out, and the more you try, the deeper you get pulled in by China.\u201d<\/p>\n How China will use this reset<\/p>\n This is a reframing of the relationship, but on Beijing\u2019s terms, said Shen Dingli, an international relations scholar in Shanghai.<\/p>\n