President Donald Trump is back from Beijing after a state visit, the first by an American leader since he made the trip in 2017. In the intervening years, this most consequential bilateral relationship in the world had become dysfunctional, battered by a cascade of schisms including a global pandemic, increasing ideological antagonism, accelerating geopolitical rivalry, and surging trade tension. The United States and China seemed unable to have a dialogue, and conflict seemed inevitable.
The question now is, having travelled across the world, what did Trump achieve in China? It is true that there was no “grand bargain”—yet he managed to move the U.S.-China relationship in a more positive direction, to the benefit of both countries and the world. Indeed, the tone between the two superpowers is moving away from endless confrontation and toward stability and, mutual respect, and renewed cooperation.
This is because the symbolism and pageantry of the state visit, and the sustained, face-to-face dialogue between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping over two days, represent a success in their own right and serve to build confidence and inject stability into the relationship, something that cannot be replaced by phone calls or brief meetings on the sidelines of other gatherings. This is especially true in light of the many storms the U.S.-China relationship has weathered in recent years.
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