Xi-Trump summit: Step in the right direction

Steering the China-U.S. relationship in the right direction is a tricky business; however, it can be done - provided the two sides continue to work toward building a new model of international relations centered on mutually-beneficial cooperation.

This week's bilateral meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Florida is a step in the right direction, and the decision to meet early in the Trump presidency signifies the importance of the China-U.S. relationship. Getting it right is important for the prosperity and security of both countries, but also the world.

In 2013, roughly three months after President Xi Jinping took office, his American counterpart welcomed Xi to the Sunnylands estate in Palm Springs, California, in the words of Xi prior to their meeting, "to chart the future of China-U.S. relations and draw a blueprint for this relationship and continue our cooperation across the Pacific Ocean."

Now, at about the same time since Donald Trump took office, the two countries prepare to meet to chart the future of the China-U.S. relationship in the new era.

Since U.S. President Richard Nixon paid his historic visit to China in 1972, both sides have sought to develop a relationship based on win-win cooperation. In doing so, policymakers on both sides of the Pacific have explicitly rejected balance-of-power politics as the central organizing concept. Despite challenges, steady efforts to reject old concepts in favor of a new type of organization based on mutual respect and win-win cooperation has become the key element.

This rational approach to international politics rests on the belief that cooperation and trust are a key means of promoting peace and prosperity. In particular, it assumes that differences can be managed by the two sides in a constructive manner and mistakes avoided.

When the two leaders meet for the first time, at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, both sides will be under pressure to find ways to strengthen cooperation rather than competition. Although strengthening the bilateral relationship is not easy, one can at least see steady progress since Nixon made his historic visit to China.

Each year since 2009, for example, the two countries have held meetings under the Strategic and Economic Dialogue bilateral mechanism to advance economic and trade priorities and to enhance cooperation. And there are many other examples of the two countries working together. The question is, can the two sides find a way to bind the relationship to face the challenges of the new era?

With the Trump administration's about-face on climate change, infrastructure could become the new cornerstone for bilateral cooperation. It's easy to see how. After all, Trump admires China for its hard-won achievements in infrastructure and development. In his book Great Again, for example, he wrote, "You go to countries like China...and you look at their train systems and their public transport. It's so much better. We're like a third-world country."

Trump's admiration for China's growth and development is an opportunity for both sides to advance the bilateral relationship, with the key question being: can the Belt and Road initiative form the common ground in the new era?

For now, we can only speculate about the outcome of the bilateral meeting, but the simple truth is that neither side can go it alone. Infrastructure is an opportunity for developing China-U.S. relations in the right direction.

China is leading the world in infrastructure investment and engineering, and this can be leveraged for the benefit of businesses and the peoples of both countries. Leveraging the bilateral relationship in a way that helps both countries become "great again" would be the very essence of win-win cooperation.

Curtis Stone is an editor and columnist based in Beijing, China. His work focuses on China-U.S. relations.