Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft 50d ago

On May 14–15, for the first time in nearly a decade, a president of the United States will travel to China. On the last presidential visit to Beijing in 2017, Donald Trump told Xi Jinping he thought the US and China working together on world problems could “solve almost all of them — and probably all of them.” In the years that followed, far from offering solutions, the US–China relationship became one of the world’s most ominous problems. After a stormy 2025, Trump seems open to resuming his earlier optimism. Yet the obstacles are forbidding: trade and technology disputes, disagreements on Latin America and the Middle East, an arms race in the Pacific, and the specter of war over Taiwan. What will Trump and Xi be discussing and is there any prospect for success? What possibilities are there for a more stable or even constructive relationship between the two superpowers? What are the biggest dangers and how can they be avoided? To discuss these questions and more, QI held a webinar featuring Jake Werner, director of Quincy Institute’s East Asia Program and Michael Swaine and Denis Simon, senior research fellows at the Quincy Institute. Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, editor-in-chief of Responsible Statecraft, moderated. *Download the full webinar transcript here*: https://quincyinst-2.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/11140133/Trump-Returns-to-Beijing_-A-New-Opening-for-US–China-Relations_.docx.pdf