U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on May 14, 2026.
Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The United States and China agreed to more cooperation Thursday at a summit in Beijing, a high-stakes meeting filled with goodwill between the two countries, who have long disputed issues ranging from intellectual property and human rights to technology and trade.
Here are five key points based on what Chinese President Xi Jinping read out at the conference.
1. New positioning
According to the official English reading of the summit by the Chinese government, Mr. Xi and US President Donald Trump agreed to develop “constructive China-US relations with strategic stability.” He said the Chinese government will treat this as a guiding framework for the next three years and beyond.
The strategic position will be guided by cooperation and “prudent competition” with manageable differences, Xi said in a statement, stressing that the framework must be translated into concrete actions.
“This suggests that a period of ‘managed stability’ will continue for some time,” said Tiancheng Xu, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Friction will continue, but “guardrails will be there and things won’t get out of both parties’ control as they likely will in 2025.”
2. Pre-summit meeting: “Balanced and positive”
At a preparatory summit in South Korea on Wednesday, trade envoys from the two countries reached an “overall balanced and positive outcome,” Xi said. The delegation was led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice President He Lifeng.
“The two countries should work together to maintain this hard-won positive momentum,” Xi said. He said the Chinese government welcomes the deepening of U.S. commercial involvement and that “the door to China’s opening up to the outside world will be opened even wider.”
The comments came as more than a dozen business leaders from some of America’s biggest companies, including Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk and Nvidia Inc.’s Jensen Huang, joined Trump’s visit.
3. Deepening cooperation
Xi said both sides should make better use of diplomatic and military communication channels. He also called for deepening cooperation in economic and trade issues, agriculture and tourism.
4. Taiwan: “The most important issue”
Mr. Xi refrained from using his sharpest words about Taiwan, calling it “the most important issue in U.S.-China relations.”
He said the stakes could not be higher: “If done well, the relationship can be maintained; if done poorly, both countries risk conflict and conflict.”
5. Other issues
According to the statement, the two countries also discussed the Middle East conflict, the Ukraine crisis, and the Korean Peninsula issue, but details were not disclosed.
