Xi and Trump face their greatest challenge yet: building US-China trust

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House is not just another ceremonial exchange. It is a test of whether the world’s two largest powers can build trust in an age where mistrust has become the default. Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the agenda. Both sides see danger but have yet to come up with meaningful regulatory cooperation.

If this summit fails to deliver workable agreements, the tactical detente could collapse into a new cold war. If the leaders succeed in their personal desire for friendship and systemic, competitive cooperation, they may forge a new kind of major power partnership that, with effort, can last beyond the Trump presidency.

Chinese officials are not monolithic. Simply put, in the southern coastal provinces, officials can be more pragmatic, focused on economic growth, trade and the daily mechanics of development. In the north, nationalism might run deeper in mindset – competition with the US is seen as destiny itself.

This duality matters. China’s bureaucracy is not simply marching in lockstep behind a single ideology; instead, China is and must be seen as a historic nation wrestling with its own contradictions. Outsiders who fail to grasp this complexity are liable to misread it.