Brian P. Klein

Opinion | US-China relations: door is open for Biden and Xi to move beyond Trump-era hostilities

Whether the US and China can forge agreements on broader coexistence is uncertain. Cautious pragmatism may be the best one can hope for while the dangers of miscalculation or worse continue to rein in more extreme views on both sides

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Why you can trust SCMP

Brian P. Klein

Published: 1:30am, 8 Jan 2021Updated: 2:41am, 9 Jan 2021

Beijing and Washington will have an opportunity to improve relations when US President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20. After four years of acrimony, it won’t take much. The inflammatory White House rhetoric will surely cease, including the litany of “China virus” barbs.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs might even end their “wolf warrior” Twitter campaigns of maximum insult. There is little reason to think a dramatic shift lies beyond a return to diplomatic formalities, though.

The United States and China are different countries now than they were four years ago. Both have entered a new phase in their bilateral relations, and definitions of what passes for normal will need to adjust to the circumstances.

This much is certain – there is no going back to the way things were, no blank slate, no reset between countries with such a long and complicated history. To be sanguine about the cosy incoherence of previous US administrations’ China policies is to drift with fanciful illusions.

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So, too, is the realists’ mantra of working together where interests align and opposing each other where they don’t. This simplistic formula has a ring of homespun wisdom when any attempt at dialogue is sold as a success. Instead, expect more straight talk, fewer bilateral summits and a host of slow-burn disagreements held loosely in check by shows of force and multilateral engagement.