Rubio says U.S., China at ‘strategic stability’ ahead of Trump trip

The United States and China have reached “stability” in their long-fractious relationship, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday (February 25, 2026) ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Asian power.

“I think we’ve reached a point at least of a sort of strategic stability in the relationship,” Mr. Rubio told reporters.

“I think both countries concluded that having an all-out global trade war between the United States and China would be deeply damaging to both sides and to the world,” Rubio said on a visit to the tiny Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Mr. Rubio has long been known as a hawk on China, with he and Mr. Trump casting the world’s second largest economy as an adversary that needed to be defeated globally.

Mr. Rubio said that the United States would keep raising concerns including seeking to diversify from China’s dominance in supply chains.

He also vowed to keep pushing China to negotiate a three-way nuclear deal with the United States and Russia.

A senior U.S. official met with Russia and China in Geneva this week after the expiration of New START, the last remaining treaty between Russia and the United States that limited nuclear warheads.

“They have publicly said they’re not willing to do it,” Mr. Rubio said of China.

“We’ll continue to press on it, because we think it would be good for the world if we could reach such an agreement.”

China’s nuclear arsenal has been growing rapidly, although it remains well below those of Russia and the United States.

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Mr. Trump is set to travel to China from March 31 to April 2 in his first visit to the country of his second term.

Mr. Rubio indicated he expected to travel with Trump, to whom he is also national security adviser.

China in 2020 imposed sanctions on Rubio, then a senator, over his advocacy for human rights in Hong Kong and among the Uyghur minority.