中文
* Since Trump's return to the White House in 2025, the Chinese and U.S. heads of state have stayed in close contact, speaking by phone many times, exchanging letters on several occasions and meeting face to face twice since late last year.
* Despite frictions and challenges, China-U.S. trade has demonstrated strong resilience. In the second quarter of this year, bilateral trade in goods grew 13.7 percent year on year. As of July this year, U.S. companies had established more than 84,000 enterprises in China.
* In just over two and a half years, more than 50,000 young Americans from all 50 states have been invited to travel to different parts of China. They have toured smart factories, visited rural communities and experienced everyday life in places far from home. For many, the journeys have led to new friendships with Chinese peers.
BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United States from Sept. 23 to 25, marking an exchange of visits between the two leaders within six months.
As changes unseen in a century are accelerating and uncertainties continue to grow around the world, the visit is expected to bring greater stability and predictability to China-U.S. relations and beyond.
CONSTRUCTIVE STRATEGIC STABILITY
China-U.S. ties have been widely regarded as the world's most important bilateral relationship. More than 50 years ago, leaders from both countries, with remarkable courage and political vision, took the historic step of breaking the ice.
Since then, the relationship has repeatedly found a way forward despite tensions and setbacks, with head-of-state diplomacy consistently providing strategic guidance.
Foreign students attending Sharing Session: Tales of People-to-People Bonds Between China and the U.S. & Re-China Dialogue visit an exhibition highlighting friendly exchanges between the civilian sectors of China and the United States at the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China in Beijing, capital of China, June 30, 2026. [Photo by Jin Liangkuai/Xinhua]
In recent years, China-U.S. relations have weathered ups and downs. How the world's two major countries manage their relationship matters far beyond their own borders.
Hosting Trump in Beijing in May, Xi underscored the responsibilities shouldered by both countries in these changing times.
"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 has repeatedly said that the broad Pacific Ocean is vast enough to embrace both China and the United States. He has also urged the two sides to be partners and friends, and work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of the two countries and the whole world.
Since Trump's return to the White House in 2025, the two leaders have stayed in close contact, speaking by phone many times, exchanging letters on several occasions and meeting face to face twice since late last year.
"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 in his meeting with Trump in May.
It was during their Beijing meeting that the two leaders agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability, providing strategic guidance for bilateral ties over the next three years and beyond.
"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," Xi said.
He outlined the "constructive strategic stability" as 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.
"The most important thing that comes out of leader-level meetings is that when the two leaders meet, they're able to build trust, and when they build trust, then everything else becomes easier," said Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council.
"So for us, that's the most important thing we're looking for when President Xi travels to Washington to meet President Trump," he added.
WIN-WIN COOPERATION
As China and the United States share broad common interests and vast potential for cooperation, Xi has emphasized the need to expand mutually beneficial cooperation, strengthen dialogue and consultation, and turn shared interests into concrete outcomes.
China-U.S. economic ties are mutually beneficial and win-win in nature, Xi said in his meeting with Trump in May.
During his state visit to China, Trump was accompanied by top U.S. executives, including Apple's Tim Cook, Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Tesla's Elon Musk, whom he called outstanding representatives from the U.S. business community.
A visitor looks at a product at a Chinese company's booth during MAGIC, a major U.S. trade show for apparel, footwear and accessories, in Las Vegas, the United States, Aug. 10, 2026. [Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua]
"China will only open its door wider," Xi said during the meeting with Trump. American companies are deeply involved in China's reform and opening up, and the U.S. side is welcome to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation, he added.
"As the world's two largest, most dynamic and most technologically advanced economies, it's just impossible for the U.S. and Chinese economies to function as well without a strong and viable relationship with the other, so it's absolutely essential," said Stein.
Despite frictions and challenges, China-U.S. trade has demonstrated strong resilience. In the second quarter of this year, bilateral trade in goods grew 13.7 percent year on year. As of July this year, U.S. companies had established more than 84,000 enterprises in China.
"What has happened demonstrates yet again that the description of China-U.S. cooperation benefiting both sides and confrontation hurting both sides reflects a common sense that has been repeatedly proven by experience, and the vision of China and the United States helping each other succeed and prosper together is a tangible prospect within reach," Xi said in a phone conversation with Trump in 2025.
This year marks the launch of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for economic and social development, and the 250th founding anniversary of the United States. As both countries enter pivotal stages of their respective development, new opportunities for cooperation are emerging.
In July, a delegation of Chinese business leaders traveled to Salt Lake City, Chicago and Washington, D.C., where they met with representatives of more than 120 U.S. companies and organizations. Their discussions underscored that the appetite for cooperation remains strong.
Across the U.S. business community, there is growing recognition of the vast potential for Chinese and U.S. companies to work together in cutting-edge fields, from green energy and the digital economy to artificial intelligence and biomedicine.
Kate Sullivan, executive director of the Greater Columbus Chinese Chamber of Commerce, pointed to Illuminate USA, a joint-venture solar panel manufacturer in Columbus, Ohio, as a success story of China-U.S. cooperation.
"It is the epitome of advanced manufacturing in the state of Ohio, drawing on multiple strengths of Chinese manufacturing and supply chains," she said. "It makes sense for the United States and China to be in business together. It's not an emotional decision there. It's business. Supply and demand."
Looking ahead, business representatives also voiced expectations for a more stable environment for bilateral cooperation.
"We hope the two heads of state will maintain strategic communication, bringing greater stability, stronger confidence and a longer-term outlook to markets and businesses in both countries," said Wang Qi, chairman of the U.S.-China Green Energy Council.
PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGES
Xi has consistently emphasized that the foundation and future of China-U.S. relations ultimately lie in the connections between the two peoples.
"Though geographically far apart, our peoples boast a long history of friendly exchanges," Xi said in a speech at a welcoming dinner hosted by local governments and friendly organizations in Seattle in 2015.
Over the years, Xi has maintained close personal ties with people from all walks of life in the United States. In 2015, Xi visited Lincoln High School in the U.S. port city of Tacoma. Without a tie, he presented gifts to the students, including books on China, a ping-pong table, and his personal invitation for the students to visit China.
American students visit a park during a music and cultural exchange camp between young people of China and the United States in Changzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 14, 2026. [Photo by Li Bo/Xinhua]
In 2023, before the Welcome Dinner by Friendly Organizations in San Francisco, Xi met with veterans of the Flying Tigers and descendants of late General Joseph Stilwell, whose stories have become an important part of the history of China-U.S. friendship.
In 2024, in his reply to a letter from Lamont Repollet, president of Kean University in the United States, Xi encouraged universities in China and the United States to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and contribute to China-U.S. friendship.
During this year's Spring Festival, Xi replied to friends in the U.S. state of Iowa and sent them a Chinese New Year card with festive greetings, continuing their warm exchange of New Year wishes for the third consecutive year.
In 2023, during his visit to San Francisco, Xi announced that China was ready to invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programs in the next five years. "We hope that our two peoples will make more visits, contacts and exchanges and write new stories of friendship in the new era," he said.
The invitation was warmly received by young people in the United States. In just over two and a half years, more than 50,000 young Americans from all 50 states have traveled to China.
Their trips have taken them to different parts of the country. They have toured smart factories, visited rural communities and experienced everyday life in places far from home. For many, the journeys have also led to new friendships with Chinese peers.
"I am particularly grateful to President Xi for his initiative of 50,000 in five years. I think that is possibly one of the most consequential initiatives in the last 20 years," said Luca Berrone, a four-decade-long friend of Xi in Iowa.
"I believe that people-to-people exchanges, particularly between China and the United States, are fundamental in continuing to strengthen the relationship, to improve understanding and acceptance," he said.
(Video reporters: Mu Xuyao, Meng Jing, Xu Yang, Liu Chunhui, Yang Zhigang, Zhao Xu, Hu Yousong and You Zhixin; Video editors: Mu Xuyao, Liu Xiaorui, Zhao Tianlin, Wang Houyuan, Shi Peng and Shang Yang)
