Track 1.5 talks: China, US explore ways to strategic stability in ties

Chinese and US representatives met on Tuesday in Beijing to discuss ways to boost political trust, expand economic and trade cooperation, and explore joint efforts in technology and artificial intelligence, with the aim of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump set the new paradigm for the constructive relationship of strategic stability at their historic meeting in May, said Liu Haixing, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (IDCPC), in a keynote speech at the third China-US Track 1.5 Dialogue.

"That has provided strategic guidance for China‑US ties over the next three years and beyond," Liu told the semi-official meeting, a format that sits between Track 1 of formal diplomacy and Track 2 of non-governmental exchanges.

In his May talks with Trump, Xi said the constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability should be 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.

"President Xi put forward this idea of a constructive relationship of strategic stability and President Trump endorsed that idea.

That would be the guiding framing for the relationship," said John L.

Thornton, co-chair of the Asia Society Board of Trustees, who attended Tuesday's dialogue.

Thornton told China Media Group (CMG) that he is optimistic that there are a lot of possibilities for progress built upon that framework.

The new positioning of China‑US relations lays the groundwork for both sides to find areas of alignment, and the Track 1.5 Dialogue serves as one positive signal, said Craig Mundie, the US co-chair of the China-US AI Track 2 Dialogue.

"If you listen to the conversations here, people are now hunting for activities that we can do that align with this slogan," Mundie told CMG on the sidelines of Tuesday's dialogue.

Trade and AI top the agenda Launched in 2023, the China‑US Track 1.5 Dialogue has yielded a raft of practical recommendations to boost bilateral engagement on politics, commerce and trade, technology and people‑to‑people ties.

The latest gathering comes at a critical moment for China-US ties, giving both sides space to address pressing bilateral issues and explore where the relationship may head next, with trade and artificial intelligence (AI) high on the agenda.

"Business has always been a central part of the US-China relationship," said Craig Allen, former president of the US-China Business Council.