After Donald Trump’s high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping in May, the idea of US-China “strategic stability” appeared in readouts from both sides. 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...