Wang Yi's US visit: Giving stability center stage

By Hannan Hussain

From October 26 to 28, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarks on a three-day visit to the United States. The landmark visit arrives at the invitation of the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and can be seen as the latest step towards advancing high-level communication between both sides. Such momentum is chief to managing differences, shoring up trust, and charting ways to cooperate on issues of mutual interest.

"We hope that the U.S. side will work with China to implement the important agreements reached by the two heads of state, strengthen communication and dialogue, expand practical cooperation, properly manage differences, and jointly push China-U.S. relations back on the track of healthy and stable development," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning ahead of the visit.

Wang's three-day visit arrives at a time when China-U.S. relations continue to benefit from a streak of diplomatic engagements and visits. This includes U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's successful senate-level visit to China, during which he expressed U.S. opposition to decoupling and "confrontation with China." California Governor Gavin Newsom is also on a week-long trip to China, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and coordinating U.S. expectations on climate change and economic cooperation.

All this momentum puts the spotlight on deepening strategic mutual trust through Wang's high-profile exchanges with Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. China has already expressed its willingness to meet Washington halfway to ensure that state-to-state interactions have a positive bearing on world peace and development. Recall that one of the key understandings from the Xi-Biden exchange in Bali last year was to "form a correct perception of each other's domestic and foreign policies and strategic intentions," and to define China-U.S. relations through dialogue and win-win cooperation.

It is here that Wang's engagement with senior U.S. diplomats can further the implementation of the high-level consensus, and potentially contribute to each other's economic and growth progress. "As two major countries in the world, whether China and the United States can find a right path of state-to-state interactions bears on world peace and development, and the future of mankind," said Xi in a congratulatory message to the annual Gala Dinner of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

This is Wang's first trip to the United States since September 2022. As such, it reflects positively on prospects to stabilize China-U.S. economic engagement long-term. After all, the visit comes on the back of the first China-U.S. Economic Working Group meeting this week. Senior finance officials from both sides converged on macroeconomic policy coordination needs and ways to address legitimate concerns through follow-up exchanges with U.S. Treasury officials. It is here that the Wang-Blinken bilateral meeting offers a vital opportunity to promote favorable market conditions to jointly accommodate the legitimate interests of their operating businesses and institutions. Sustained Sino-U.S. strategic communication has played a valuable role in easing economic tensions in recent months, including Washington's welcome decision to remove dozens of Chinese entities from its "unverified list."

There is also a significant regional and international stake in stabilizing the decades-old relationship at present. After all, Wang's talks are likely to focus on a range of pressing regional and global challenges, such as the rising tensions in the Middle East and ways for U.S. and China to work together for peacebuilding in the Asia Pacific. Both sides have a shared stake in advancing conflict resolution, including urgent de-escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to help avoid a regional war in the Middle East. In an early sign of optimism, Blinken expressed his readiness to engage with Wang on the issue and help rein in tensions in the Middle East. "I look forward to continuing to work with my counterpart from the People's Republic of China to do precisely that [prevent conflict escalation] when he visits Washington later this week," said Blinken in remarks delivered to the UN Security Council this week.

All told, Wang's Washington visit provides an ideal platform to put mutual trust at the center of bilateral ties and widen the expanse of economic and strategic common ground. As months of high-level strategic communication made clear, the path to stability runs through peaceful Sino-U.S. coexistence.

Hannan Hussain, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a foreign affairs commentator, author, and assistant research associate at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.