Can China and America Make Peace?

By
Richard C. Young
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President Donald J. Trump joins Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, at the start of their bilateral meeting Saturday, June 29, 2019, at the G20 Japan Summit in Osaka, Japan. ( Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

In Foreign Affairs, David Lampton and Wang Jisi note that China and the United States of America have watched relations go from “cautious engagement to tense rivalry,” but they note that there may soon be an opportunity to improve relations. They write:

Yet this trajectory is not irreversible. The coming months may present a rare window in which political developments, economic imperatives, and strategic fatigue on both sides create conditions conducive to stabilizing and normalizing bilateral relations. Such opportunities are delicate. As veteran scholars in the United States and China, we have lived through nearly six decades of fluctuation in the bilateral relationship, and we understand the shadow of confrontation between our two countries. But we also loathe the possibility of another generation entering a new cold war. Without timely and deliberate policy action, inertia and rivalry will prevail by default, raising the risk of a confrontation with global consequences. What the world needs is not so much a return to the traditional forms of U.S.-Chinese engagement as a new normalization of relations that pulls each side back from the brink.

Not only has the United States government been decoupling from China itself, but there has been pressure on allies to avoid China as well. Some recent comments about China from the Trump administration are posted below:

Companies like Meta are responding:

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