At the trade forum in Washington in December, Chinese Ambassador Xie told business communities that 2026 will offer "unprecedented" cooperation opportunities for Chinese and US companies, with China hosting the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and the US hosting the G20 Summit.

He urged both sides to deepen dialogue, narrow politically driven disputes, and pursue new opportunities made possible by the stabilizing role of head-of-state diplomacy alongside China's development blueprint for the five years starting from 2026.

In Beijing, US Ambassador to China David Perdue amplified US Trade Representative Greer's voice by reposting the latter's remarks on X on Dec 15.

"President Trump is very focused on having a constructive relationship with China… and so we're quite focused on trying to find a path forward to have an exchange of goods and services between China and the US that makes sense for both of us and that is fairly balanced," the post read.

Read together, the messages from both sides make a similar forecast for 2026 — not guaranteed blue skies, but an effort to improve visibility and, if the momentum holds, achieve greater certainty.