From July 3 to 4, 2026, Yu Tiejun, President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) and Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS), PKU, attended the 14th World Peace Forum upon invitation. The forum was co-hosted by Tsinghua University and the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA). Speaking on July 4 at the panel discussion on "China-U.S. Relations and Global Stability," Professor Yu noted that "constructive strategic stability" between China and the United States does not mean denying that strategic competition exists between the two countries. Rather, while acknowledging such competition, the two sides should ground it into a manageable, fair and sustainable framework. China and the United States need to identify areas where they can cooperate and also clarify the boundaries of competition, covering arms control, artificial intelligence, crisis management, and the procedures and rules for handling contingencies.

In an interview with China Review News Agency after the forum, Prof. Yu said that the most urgent task in China-U.S. relations at present is to turn the concept of "guardrails" into concrete and workable areas of security cooperation, and to treat the building of guardrails as a confidence-building measure that steadily increases mutual trust. In other words, guardrails should be more than a political concept: specific issues, mechanisms and rules need to take shape around their construction.

Editor: Li Fangqi