China-US relations: what to expect from ‘constructive strategic stability’? in World Economy News 16/05/2026 Many market participants were left rather underwhelmed after the much-hyped Trump visit to China concluded, with equities and the CNY both softening on Friday as the summit ended without any major surprises. Understandably, markets tend to be more concerned with immediate deliverables, rather than rhetoric and broader political themes, but that does not make the latter unimportant. In fact, both leaders touted an important consensus reached after the meetings, with Trump saying the relationship was “very strong” and Xi saying that both sides had achieved “lots of results” during the summit. From China’s side, the key focus appears to be on the new language for framing China-US ties, namely a so-called “China-US constructive strategic stability” positioning to guide the next three-plus years of relations. So what does this actually mean? Constructive strategic stability may sound like a simple slogan, but Xi called for concerted action to achieve this goal. The overarching message behind it is quite important to digest. In essence, this stance aims to strive for a relationship with cooperation at the core, while acknowledging that competition is inevitable but striving to keep it at a reasonable level. In practice, this probably means continued competition in strategic industries like tech while expanding cooperation in less sensitive fields. The initial announcements look pretty limited, with the headlines centred on China’s agreement to buy 200 Boeing aeroplanes and resuming import licences for US beef plants. We do expect there should be more announcements coming through in the coming days and weeks, as both sides have hinted at significant progress. Possible areas to watch for include a longer-term trade truce extension, potential tariff reductions, loosening or halting export controls on chips/rare earths, improving market access (also mentioned as a part