China says Trump-Xi summit opened new phase in ties

China on Wednesday described President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Beijing as a “historic and successful” summit that produced progress on tariffs, trade cooperation and educational exchanges, despite continuing tensions over Taiwan, technology restrictions and strategic rivalry.

Speaking in Washington, China’s deputy ambassador to the United States, Qui Wenxing, said Beijing viewed the Trump-Xi Jinping meeting as “a significant step towards the establishment of the right path of getting along between China and the US in the new era”.

Framing the summit around the themes of “mutual respect”, “strategic stability” and “win-win results”, Qui said both leaders had developed strong personal communication and sought to stabilise ties between the world’s two largest economies.

“China and the US are two great nations,” Qui told reporters. “President Xi and President Trump actually, they respect each other and have maintained close communications.”

He added that Beijing believed “achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America greater again can go hand in hand”.

According to the Chinese diplomat, the two sides agreed to pursue “a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability” that could shape bilateral relations “over the next three years and beyond”.

“We believe that cooperation is the mainstay,” Qui said. “Of course, there is competition in the field of economic and trade areas, but we cannot define this relationship with competition.”

He also criticised what he described as a “zero-sum game” approach towards bilateral ties and stressed the need to manage disputes constructively.

“We do want to do everything we can to avoid any conflict and confrontation between us, because conflict and confrontation will produce consequences no one can bear,” he said.

Rejecting criticism that the summit lacked concrete outcomes, Qui insisted the talks had delivered “many tangible and concrete results”.

Among the understandings reached, he said, were discussions on reciprocal tariff reductions involving products worth “30 billion US dollars or even more on each side”.

Qui also said both governments had agreed to establish intergovernmental trade and investment councils, work towards resolving non-tariff barriers and market access issues, and study supply chain concerns involving rare earth minerals and other critical materials.

In a major commercial announcement, the deputy ambassador said China had agreed to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft and indicated that further deals could follow.

“There remains potential for Chinese companies to buy more if conditions are right,” he said.

On people-to-people exchanges, Qui highlighted President Xi Jinping’s initiative to invite 50,000 American students to study or travel in China over the next five years as part of efforts to improve public engagement between the two countries.

The diplomat also said Beijing and Washington had agreed to support each other in hosting upcoming international summits, including APEC and the G20.

Qui confirmed that Xi had accepted Trump’s invitation to visit the United States later this autumn, although the dates for the visit were yet to be finalised.

The summit comes amid continuing friction between Washington and Beijing over tariffs, technology controls, Taiwan and strategic competition across the Indo-Pacific.

Despite persistent disputes, both governments have recently signalled a willingness to maintain high-level engagement and prevent relations from deteriorating further.

With IANS inputs