While the White House framed this vision as a “constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of fairness and reciprocity”, Beijing said only that it was a “constructive bilateral relationship of strategic stability”.
China watchers zoomed in on the phrase – especially the Chinese version – debating what it could reveal or conceal about Beijing’s long-term ambitions.
The episode highlights the importance of language in
diplomacy. And according to analysts, while Beijing has become better equipped linguistically to parse American strategy, the US is struggling to do the same.
They put that down to funding cuts to language programmes in America as well as dwindling student exchanges and less interest in learning Chinese.
The result is a disjointed network of government programmes, think tanks and independent researchers seeking to translate and interpret China’s latest moves.
Analysts say that fragmentation could make it harder for Washington to understand its most critical bilateral relationship.