Xi Offers Trump Pathway to New Development and Security Architecture

May 16—Sources report that President Donald Trump has returned from China and meetings with "his friend" Chinese President Xi Jinping "totally enthused about prospects for U.S.-Chinese relations."

The U.S. and global media has played down the trip, reporting only that Trump got some vague promises of future Chinese purchases of U.S.-made aircraft and American beef, while hearing a stern warning from Xi to avoid "interference in internal Chinese affairs" in U.S. dealings with China's province, Taiwan. In so doing, they dismissed the agreement on a new vision for the U.S.-Chinese relationship based on the concept of "constructive strategic stability" as nice words that will have little practical effect on the real world.

Xi’s Vision of ‘Constructive Strategic Stability’

"I look forward to working together with you to set the course and steer the giant ship of China-U.S. relations, so as to make 2026 a historic, landmark year that opens up a new chapter in China-U.S. relations," Xi said, according to the official Chinese Foreign Ministry readout of the May 14 meeting.

"I have agreed with President Trump on a new vision of building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability," Xi said. The new vision will provide strategic guidance for bilateral relations over the next three years and beyond and should be welcomed by the people of both countries as well as the international community, he said.

The "constructive strategic stability" should be a positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, a sound stability with moderate competition, a constant stability with manageable differences, and an enduring stability with promises of peace, Xi said.

The building of a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability should not be a mere slogan, but concrete action taken by both sides toward the same goal, he added.

China-U.S. economic ties are mutually beneficial and win-win in nature, said Xi. "Where disagreements and frictions exist, equal-footed consultation is the only right choice," he said.

Noting that China will only open its door wider, Xi said American companies are deeply involved in China's reform and opening up, and the U.S. side is welcome to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation.

"The two sides should implement the important consensus we have reached and make better use of communication channels in the political, diplomatic and military-to-military fields," Xi said.

The two countries should also expand exchanges and cooperation in areas such as the economy and trade, health, agriculture, tourism, people-to-people ties and law enforcement, Xi added.

Linking Economic Development and Global Peace

Sources report that Xi spent much of the time in their two bilateral meetings explaining to Trump how this represents a new way of "doing business" with China, that integrates cooperative and expansive economic development with joint efforts to stabilize world peace, including ending wars that exist and preventing new ones from starting; that this is essential to global progress and yet beyond the scope of what was normally considered within the purview of U.S.-China relations. The new vision requires direct and open communication at the highest levels, where the formulation of joint initiatives becomes a method of action.

This, for example, transforms the discussion of the Iran war from dealing with the manifold problems it has caused and seeking an end to hostilities, to the question of whether there was not a better way than launching an aggression against Iran to accomplish Trump's goal of ending Iran's potential to develop a nuclear weapon, and what help China, who is Iran's number one purchaser of oil and natural gas, could have played in bringing about a resolution of the problem without war. This points the way towards a workable way to solve all crises, not just involving two nuclear superpowers, the United States and China, but also including the other superpower, President Vladimir Putin's Russia, and, as the late statesman and physical economist Lyndon LaRouche had proposed, India. If those four powers could agree on a policy, if fair and just, the rest of the world would have to go along.

Trump, FDR, and the ‘Four Policemen’ Concept

"Trump is fascinated with the idea of superpower cooperation," said a source. "He has learned that FDR had envisioned just such an arrangement for solving the world's post WW II problems and enforcing the world peace that he dubbed the 'Four Policemen'—then the U.S., Russia, China, and Britain.

But FDR died and the Western powers instead sought a geopolitical war against the Soviet Union as policy, creating the basis for division of the world against its own self-interest. Xi is striking a chord here that interests Trump, especially after the disaster of the Iran war, and Trump being played for a sucker by Israel and [Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu."

Economic Ambitions and Investment Prospects

Sources report that Trump, who was accompanied on his trip by dozens of top American business and financial leaders, had wanted to come away with China announcing investments in the American economy of more than $1 trillion. What might eventually happen might far exceed that, as should the security and global peace initiatives that are part of this new 3-year vision work, China, sources say, might create with Trump an infrastructure development bank, whose projects would far exceed the $1 trillion figure.

Meanwhile, sources report that China may be willing to once again purchase U.S. securities, which could calm those markets. China had bought more than $1.5 trillion in U.S. securities and halted purchases in the context of trade and tariff wars.

In addition, as the corporate executives stressed, the U.S. is willing to go "all in" in the Chinese market, awaiting reforms that will make that possible.

Taiwan, Strategic Rivalry, and Red Lines

But the Chinese are not foolish. They are fully aware that there is a faction of anti-Chinese war hawks inside the Trump administration who see China as a threat to U.S. power and hegemony, which must be resisted and ultimately fought. Taiwan represents a pivot of their policy, and from their perspective, even the Iran war was directed against China.

Hence Xi's warnings of the need for the United States to avoid the Thucydides Trap and his statement of clear red lines on Taiwan. They await concrete changes and results from Trump.

"Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide greater stability for the world? Can we build a bright future together for our bilateral relations in the interest of the well-being of the two peoples and the future of humanity? These are the questions vital to history, to the world and to the people," said Xi.

Xi asked Trump to carefully consider the consequences of a recently approved $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan. 1982 legislation bars the U.S. from considering Chinese interests when dealing with arms sales to Taiwan. But Trump told reporters that the 1980s were a long time ago, and that "he asked me to look at it. What am I to say, 'no I won't.' I am not going to do that."

Trump refused to answer a question about whether the United States would support Taiwan in a war with China. "There is only one person who knows the answer to that. You know who that is? Me."