Opportunities and concerns in the phone call between leaders of China and US

Editor's notes: Xu Tianqi is the deputy director of International Department of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. The article reflects the authors' opinion and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

On June 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump held another telephone call, marking the second such call since January. Both sides addressed key issues influencing the bilateral relationship, such as the willingness for cooperation, trade, and student exchanges, offering positive responses to each other. According to media reports, the call lasted 90 minutes in a cordial atmosphere, and Xi invited Trump to visit China again.

Firstly, the talk shows China-US relation will remain stable overall and continue to serve as a stabilizing force for global security and stability. Despite various frictions, the leaders of the two powers are still able to sit down and talk calmly, proposing plans for future cooperation in areas such as trade and student exchanges. Clearly, the two leaders did not elevate the trade dispute to the level of national confrontation, but continued to view tariffs as part of economic competition between countries.

Secondly, the talk has clarified the general direction for future economic and trade negotiations, providing greater certainty for the global economy. The two leaders agreed that their respective teams should continue to implement the consensus reached in Geneva, and hold a new round of talks as soon as possible. Trump stated that "The conversation was focused almost entirely on TRADE," and that "Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined."

Thirdly, the talk shows that the two countries still have significant room for negotiation and consultation, giving the world hope for the proper reform of the global governance system and a smooth transition of the world order. President Xi said Trump is welcome to visit China again, and Trump expressed great anticipation for the meeting between "presidents of two great nations." The two leaders clearly recognize that there is enormous potential for cooperation between the two countries, and therefore it is necessary to sit down for face-to-face negotiations.

Can we expect the phone call to completely improve China-US relations? We should not be overly optimistic. Currently, the US, especially some American elites, have formed a number of misconceptions on China.

For example, some Americans hold the views that the world must have a hegemonic power capable of and willing to maintain world order, otherwise the world will be in a chaos, and that this power can only be the US. However, they fail to recognize that within regional blocs like the EU and ASEAN, there is no true hegemonic power, yet these regions have still managed to maintain relatively friendly and harmonious relations.

In addition, some Americans instinctively believe that China's rising strength will lead the US and China into a "Thucydides Trap," but have failed to think deeply that the changes from agricultural society to industrial and digital society have brought about totally different potentials for the great power relations.

What's more, many Americans have mistakenly perceived the reasons behind China's rise. Many Americans believe that China's rise is due to America's "charity," for example, from "allowing" China to join the WTO to "helping" China train AI talents; but have failed to see the hard work and diligence of the Chinese people, as well as the country's huge investment in basic education and scientific research and innovation.

In fact, China's stance on China-US relations has always been consistent and clear. As early as 2013, President Xi proposed that the two countries work together to build a "new model of major-country relationship" with the US characterized by no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation. In 2017, during the meeting with Trump, Xi further emphasized that "there are a thousand reasons to make the China-US relationship work, and no reason to break it." However, the US has rarely responded positively to China's proactive statements: From the Obama administration's distortion and smear campaign against the Belt and Road Initiative, to Trump's launch of the trade war against China in 2018, and then onto the Biden administration's "small yard with high fences" strategy aimed at blocking China's industrial progress, and finally to the high tariffs imposed by Trump 2.0 in 2025, which caused a direct halt in bilateral trade.

As President Xi has stated during the June 5 call, now is the time for both China and the US to correct the course of China-US relations. In terms of absolute strength, China is catching up with and even surpassing the US at an unprecedented pace — not to mention the general manufacturing capabilities, but even in cutting-edge fields, as Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO said, "50 percent of the world's AI researchers are Chinese." It does not mean that the US should feel threatened by such a China.

Throughout history, few great powers have declined due to external challenges. The US is still holding a position of advantage, and a stable global governance system is more beneficial to the US itself. Conversely, if the US treats China as a hypothetical enemy and arbitrarily alters international rules to become a global pariah, hardly can the US can "make America great again."

As described many times by the Chinese side, China and the US can collaborate in areas such as infrastructure, climate change, digitalization and artificial intelligence, space and deep-earth exploration, etc. Even in terms of trade and market access, the two countries can work together to improve current rules to better alleviate the current fiscal and trade deficit stress in the United States.