Tillerson underscores the importance of the United States’ relationship with China and the commitment ensuring the bilateral ties endure for the future.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has just finished his 24-hour visit to the US, meeting with his American counterpart Donald Trump at the “Winter White House”, Mar-a-Lago at the Palm Beach. On the one hand, President Trump openly admitted that he has “got nothing” out of the summit. On the other, however, his staff has briefed that this is not all the case.

Much attention is understandably given to multilateral meetings and bilateral summits, as in the Xi-Trump Summit at Mar-a-Lago. Even more important in our increasingly urbanized world will be to continue to look at and learn from what is happening on the ground in cities and surrounding areas even after the summiteers have left.

The best way for these two leaders to break the proverbial ice—and nurture a sincerely cooperative mood—could be to share personal experiences related to U.S.-China relations, including their family stories. Even from an outside observer’s perspective, some simple anecdotes could help illustrate these two leaders’ long-standing goodwill towards a healthy and constructive relationship between their respective nations.

China and the U.S. will hold their first summit meeting this week. Though the concrete schedule has not been released, there is no doubt that the North Korean nuclear issue will be a hot topic between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

At a press conference on March 30, Chinese spokesperson Lu Kang announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida from April 6-7.

Could Trump like Richard Nixon “echo like thunder” by unilaterally announcing a high tariff regime to balance U.S. trade deficit and break the WTO system? While some of Trump’s advisors would wave their heads affirmatively, the institutional and commercial leverage of the U.S today is much inferior from Nixon’s America that bended Europeans to follow her unilateral demands.

The stakes for the first Xi-Trump summit are high—but so also is the opportunity to stabilize relations and set a positive tone for future interactions. President Xi and the Chinese side will come to the summit extremely well prepared on a wide range of complex issues confronting the two governments. The question is: how well prepared will the new American president be?

While many issues are on the table, China hopes to work with America to assure the DPRK’s legitimate security while persuading Pyongyang to come down from the nuclear ladder. The upcoming summit meeting holds promise for a workable new type of great-power partnership.

The new Trump administration is well aware of the significance of China-US relations for the US, and the Chinese side is also eager to see a rapid and smooth transition of bilateral ties. Both sides, therefore, share a desire to have their leaders meet as soon as possible, and Secretary Tillerson’s visit this week has created a sound atmosphere for the meeting.