What 'respect, fairness, reciprocity' mean for China-US constructive strategic stability

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump on Friday agreed to build a constructive relationship of strategic stability based on respect, fairness and reciprocity.

The consensus has further enriched the substance of the constructive strategic stability between China and the US, which was reached at the two leaders' meeting in May, Diao Daming, deputy director of the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China, told China Media Group.

Diao said the emphasis on respect, fairness and reciprocity is consistent with the principles China has consistently upheld in handling China-US relations: mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. These principles represent not only a continuation of established approaches and a reflection on lessons drawn from history, but also a further development of the right way for China and the United States to coexist and engage with each other in the new era.

Diao explained that "respect" is the prerequisite for a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.

"It means respecting each other's social systems, development paths and core interests, while carrying forward the spirit of the three China-US joint communiques," he said.

"Fairness" is a value embedded in China's vision for a new type of international relations, Diao noted. 

"It is reflected both in the pursuit of fairness and justice in international relations and in upholding the fairness of international law and the international order."

"Reciprocity" refers to reciprocal benefits and a balance between rights and responsibilities, he said. "It emphasizes equality in status and the accommodation of each other's interests in international relations, rather than one side enjoying all the rights and interests while the other bears all the obligations."

Taken together, the principles of respect, fairness and reciprocity will help China and the United States advance the new positioning of a relationship of constructive strategic stability and enable it to better benefit the people of both countries as well as people around the world, Diao said.

He added that the new consensus reached during Xi's visit to the United States could bring greater stability and predictability to China-US relations: managing differences through respect, shaping a fairer order through fairness, and achieving mutual benefit through reciprocity.

Upholding and further developing a constructive strategic stability relationship is therefore part of the efforts by China and the United States to find the right way to coexist and engage with each other, Diao noted. Such efforts, he added, can provide greater certainty to bilateral relations while contributing to stability in today's world.