The Great Power Show: Xi-Trump Summit┃Seeking a Very Stable Rivalry?

In May this year, Donald Trump flew to Beijing. This week, Xi Jinping returns the favour. The Chinese leader arrives in the United States on a state visit, with the two presidents set to meet on September 24. This is their second summit in under five months, and quite possibly not their last this year.

But what exactly is happening between these two countries? Because on the one hand, Washington and Beijing seem to be finding ways to manage their differences. On the other, the underlying relationship remains deeply competitive: over technology, trade, military power, and ultimately the shape of the international order.

Beijing is calling this a relationship of “constructive strategic stability”, a new framework it says will guide ties for the next three years and beyond. But what does that phrase actually mean? What does each side really want? And can a relationship this fraught be steadied by two leaders who both prize the personal touch?

To help us make sense of it, in this episode of The Great Power Show, Manoj Kewalramani speaks to Jonathan A. Czin. Jonathan is the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and a fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings in Washington. Before that, he served in the Senior Analytic Service at the CIA, where he was the US intelligence community’s top expert on Xi Jinping.

They talk about where the China-US relationship stands, Xi as a negotiator and strategist, and whether chemistry between him and Trump really matters to the broader relationship. They also dig into the mood in Washington and on the Hill, how Beijing reads American politics ahead of the midterms, and how China is positioning itself on Iran, Ukraine, its own neighbourhood and the Global South.

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