Photo: VCG

China announced on Monday that, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump will pay a state visit to China from Wednesday to Friday, setting the stage for a closely watched leaders' meeting between the world's two largest economies.

This upcoming visit, coming after a phone call between the two leaders in February and their Busan meeting last October, continues to demonstrate the important role of heads-of-state diplomacy in further stabilizing and improving bilateral ties, Chinese experts said. 

At a time when the world is facing growing uncertainty and fragmentation, enhancing communication, managing differences and maintaining stable China-US relations not only serves the interests of peoples of both countries, but also benefits the world, they noted. 

Leading role of heads-of-state diplomacy 

In response to a question regarding Trump's upcoming visit and China's expectations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference on Monday that this will be the first visit to China by a US president in almost nine years. President Xi will have in-depth exchanges of views with President Trump on major issues concerning China-US relations and world peace and development.

Heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-US relations, Guo said, adding that China stands ready to work with the US to expand cooperation and manage differences in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit, and provide more stability and certainty for a transforming and volatile world.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday posted a video on X reviewing past interactions between President Xi and President Trump, saying that one message stands out from their meetings: the steady development of China-US relations brings certainty and stability to the world.

As the world's two major powers, China and the US naturally need steady bilateral relations, and the upcoming engagement is expected to help steer the two countries' ties toward healthier interaction and will be helpful to keeping overall relations on a stable track, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Monday.

The key to stable China-US relations lies in both sides' willingness to engage in dialogue, with the strategic guidance of the two leaders playing an irreplaceable role that other communication channels can hardly match, said Li.

Chinese experts said sustained cooperation between the two countries is key to tackling global challenges.

China and the US are stepping up political communication and engaging on global hotspot issues at a time of growing turbulence and uncertainty. Such engagement carries significance in helping the world navigate a volatile international landscape, Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University, told the Global Times.

According to CNBC, China and the US are supposed to "seal outcomes on potentially a huge range of issues."

Zhu said that the Taiwan question is at the very core of China's core interests and remains the most sensitive issue in China-US relations. China expects the US to firmly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, and to refrain from sending any wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. On this fundamental issue, the US needs to work in the same direction with China so that China-US relations can move forward on a steady and sustainable track.

Ahead of the two leaders' meeting, China and the US are set to hold economic and trade consultations in South Korea on May 12-13, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will lead a delegation to South Korea to hold economic and trade consultations with the US from Tuesday to Wednesday, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Sunday.

The two sides will be guided by the important consensus reached between the two heads of state at their meeting in Busan and during previous calls, and will hold consultations on economic and trade issues of mutual concern, according to the ministry.

The economic and trade dialogue also shows that the two sides have maintained ongoing consultations on relevant issues, and are working together in the hope of addressing them together, which may also create conditions for yielding more substantial outcomes in the economic and trade arena, Li said.

Chinese experts also stressed that cooperation between China and the US should be two-way and based on equality. He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Monday that given that China-US relations stand among the world's most important bilateral ties, it is essential to sustain strategic interaction and stability. 

"Respect for China's core interests and legitimate concerns represents China's bottom line, and the US' accommodation of this fundamental principle is essential to keeping bilateral relations on a sound track - a stable China-US relationship will in turn benefit both countries and global development," He said.

Extensive attention 

International media outlets are paying close attention to the upcoming meeting between the leaders. After China's announcement, AFP published an article titled "China confirms Trump's visit from May 13 to 15", while Bloomberg said in an article that "Beijing officially announced the date of Donald Trump's state visit this week" and described the meeting as "much-anticipated."

CNBC noted that "world leaders eye" the China-US leaders' meeting from afar, and commented, citing analysts, that the summit outcome could have major ramifications for global trade, geopolitics, and the rules-based order.

Carl Fey, professor of strategy at BI Norwegian Business School, told the Global Times that a stable relationship between the US and China would be a huge benefit to both countries and the entire world. As the world's two largest economies, a stable and collaborative relationship between the two countries would provide an additional engine for global growth. 

As an American who works extensively with China, Fey sincerely hopes US-China relations will improve. However, he noted that it is important to be realistic: a radical change is unlikely to happen overnight. Still, the meeting is an important first step, Fey said.

In a May 3 New York Times opinion piece titled "Trump Is Coming to a China That Has Moved On," Jacob Dreyer, an American editor and contributing writer for Noema based in Shanghai, wrote that while it is encouraging that Trump wants to work on the relationship, maintaining a form of tense stability may be the most he can realistically hope for.

When Trump lands in Beijing, Dreyer wrote, he should recognize a new dynamic: a China that is no longer simply responding to America's agenda, but is increasingly capable of setting the agenda and pointing the way forward, much as the US once did.