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Cao Jiaxuan

Economic issues are expected to take centre stage at the US-China summit in April but regional security will also feature, according to former US ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns.
Speaking via a video link to the Yale Centre Beijing on Tuesday, Burns said US President Donald Trump would be “right to focus on economic issues” during his trip to the Chinese capital for talks with President Xi Jinping.
“And let us hope that they can sustain the truce in tariffs – the tariff wars – and sustain the truce in the supply chain wars in 2026 that were so destabilising in 2025,” Burns said, adding that other matters would be discussed.
“Because there are so many issues that divide the two countries and that threaten the peace between the two countries.”
Xi is expected to make a state visit to the United States this year.
The two leaders last met on the sidelines of the Apec forum in South Korea in October for what was then their first face-to-face encounter since Trump’s return to the White House.
They agreed to ease tensions and made progress on issues including soybean purchases, critical mineral export controls and tariffs linked to fentanyl.
Trump had previously imposed sweeping tariffs on goods from a range of countries, including China, in a push to revive US manufacturing, prompting retaliation from Beijing.


During the event on Tuesday, Burns said direct engagement between the leaders was “very, very positive”.
“There’s no substitute for this kind of head-of-state engagement … given the power that both of them have in the system,” he said.
He also called for a “more complete view” of the present US administration’s approach, pointing to rising regional frictions such as those between Beijing and Tokyo over the Taiwan Strait.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on November 7 that an attack on Taiwan would pose a security threat that might prompt Japanese military involvement – remarks that drew strong criticism from Beijing.
Norwegian historian Odd Arne Westad echoed Burns’ call for broader engagement, urging “a significant level of engagement that goes beyond trade issues”.
Westad, who specialises in Cold War history, said he hoped the two leaders would be “willing and able to discuss regional conflicts and the role that the two countries can play individually or possibly together in some cases, in trying to reduce the tension”.
“The most meaningful Soviet-US relations that developed during the Cold War were on these kinds of issues … they actually had a mutual interest in reducing tensions,” he said.
Westad said a big concern was the absence of an arms control dialogue between Washington and Beijing.
“It is to me remarkable that you have the kind of relationship that now exists between the United States and China … and not one single attempt at dealing with arms control issues at whatever level that exists between the two sides,” he said.
“I think that is a mistake of world historical proportions.”


The global arms control framework has largely collapsed.
Last week, Washington declined Moscow’s proposal to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New Start, by one year, ending a treaty signed 16 years ago by Russia and the US.
Instead, the US urged China to join a new trilateral nuclear arms control framework.
Beijing swiftly rejected the idea, arguing that its much smaller arsenal made such participation inappropriate compared with the vast stockpiles held by the United States and Russia.
The treaty capped the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 and limited the fleet of launchers and heavy bombers to 800.
Westad said a dialogue on strategic stability could build trust in other areas.
“Talking about these kinds of issues could actually create some level of trust on other issues as well. That’s a crucial aspect of how the Cold War came to an end,” he said.
He also called for restoring structured, regular channels of communication, saying it was “absolutely essential”.
Westad, the author of The Coming Storm, also cautioned against framing this era as a new Cold War.
“I can assure you this [era] is not a Cold War,” he said.
“The world today looks increasingly like the world a hundred years ago,” Westad said, comparing China’s rapid rise to that of Germany before World War I.
He also said established powers could destabilise the system if they lost confidence in it.
Burns said the US and China were “structural rivals” that were “competing across a broad front of issues”.
“Both of us want to be, without any question, the strongest military power in the Indo-Pacific … this momentous contest for military power,” he said.
“The great fear … is if human passions override human reason … could we stumble into a catastrophic 21st century war?”


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There is no substitute for top-level engagement given the issues at stake, Nicholas Burns says


There is no substitute for top-level engagement given the issues at stake, Nicholas Burns says.


What will headline the Xi-Trump summit? Former US envoy weighs in

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}There is no substitute for top-level engagement given the issues at stake, Nicholas Burns says

There is no substitute for top-level engagement given the issues at stake, Nicholas Burns says