China-US summit offers stability but leaves major security differences unresolved, adviser says

The latest China-US summit produced a limited but useful improvement in relations, according to Zheng Yongnian, a Chinese political scientist and government adviser, who said the two countries should assess their ties through realism rather than expectations of a sweeping breakthrough. In an interview published by the South China Morning Post, Zheng said cooperation and competition would continue to coexist between the two major powers. He described the relationship as occupying a space between two de facto superpowers and a form of joint governance, while warning that direct conflict would have destructive consequences.

Zheng said the summit’s most important result was greater stability in economic and trade relations. He argued that the Chinese and US economies remained substantially complementary, even though they competed in areas including high technology. In his view, the meeting reinforced the role of trade ties as a stabilising force in the broader relationship.

He also identified the creation of a bilateral artificial-intelligence dialogue as a positive development. Although the two sides used different language in presenting the summit’s results, Zheng said their positions showed some common ground. Political trust, however, remained limited.

Zheng said both China and the United States held strong perceptions that the other posed a security threat, including threats that he characterised as perceived rather than necessarily real. He argued that trust would require frequent communication between the countries’ leaders. The Chinese readout referred to an agreement to conclude a memorandum on crisis communication and prevention between the two militaries.

Zheng noted that this point was absent from the White House fact sheet, which instead highlighted President Donald Trump’s call for trilateral arms-control negotiations involving China, Russia and the United States. Zheng said the two countries also had different security priorities. Washington emphasised issues including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Korean peninsula and the war on Iran, while Beijing focused on Taiwan and the South China Sea.

He argued that cooperation would be needed to address these disputes. Looking ahead, Zheng said the sides should expand economic cooperation and deepen their shared commitment to stability before attempting to resolve more difficult security questions.