China Daily, in a 30 August 2024 posting about US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s meeting with Communist Party of China General Secretary Xi Jinping, reports that “Xi said that as two major countries, China and the US should be responsible to history, the people and the world, and ‘should be a source of stability for world peace and a driving force for common development.’”

While not obvious in domestic US political contexts, Xi’s statement frames a “grand strategy” trade—stability for development. He knows the US wants stability—in Europe, the South China Sea, and elsewhere. The trade for that: Xi wants development for China.

That Xi Jinping made the statement so simply and that China Daily posted the quote confirms its official authenticity. That’s very good news.

Now, it’s up to US diplomacy to do the hard work it will require to make Xi’s words stick. Emblazoning and repeating Xi words persistently, broadcasting the hope that those words convey widely, and leading the narrative with US interpretations of their meaning can turn Xi’s words into guiding principles to reduce instability in Europe and the South China Sea.