What the China-US stability pact means for Southeast Asia

When Xi Jinping and Donald Trump concluded their Beijing summit, the most consequential outcome – for China at least – may prove not material, but conceptual: the adoption of “constructive strategic stability” (CSS) as the guiding framework for managing their intensifying competition.For Southeast Asia, a region often caught in the rivalry between the two powers, understanding what this means will matter in the years ahead.The framework reflects a long-held Chinese strategic aspiration. Beijing has sought for years to anchor its relationship with Washington within an overarching paradigm – one that would codify, at the highest level, a set of principles governing how the two powers relate to each other.From Beijing’s perspective, it also reflects Washington’s implicit recognition of China as a near-peer – if not already a coequalWhen Xi visited Washington during the Obama administration in 2015, Beijing floated the concept of a “new type of major power relations”. Washington was cool. The balance of power then still favoured the US and American policymakers were wary of any formulation that smacked of a G2 condominium, with its implicit endorsement of Chinese co-primacy.