Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is trying his best to build an anti-China alliance, but he’s not making a lot of headway. Instead, he is irritating U.S. allies, who want to maintain relations with Beijing.

Strong-arm tactics by the United States will not cause China to bend to its will. What’s needed is honest diplomacy that recognizes and respects China’s history, culture and spirit.

Since 2017, America’s National Security Strategy has focused on great power competition, and today much of Washington is busy portraying our relationship with China as a new cold war. Obviously, great power competition remains a crucial aspect of foreign policy, but we must not let it obscure the growing transnational security threats that technology is putting on the agenda.

The Trump administration announced sanctions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong and dispatched a cabinet member to Taipei, further souring the ties with Beijing.

The Economic Prosperity Network, a new initiative hatched by the United States, is designed to marginalize China. But it’s largely an emotional exercise that will have painful costs for the network’s own members.

China’s political system is fundamentally incompatible with the mainstream of the existing international order, leaving it two choices as it considers how to fend off Trump’s onslaught.

The third episode of The Pacific Dialogue, is between two prominent scholars – Prof. Ezra Vogel of the Harvard University and Prof. Jia Qingguo of Peking University. They spoke from their homes in Boston and Beijing respectively. The conversation took place on July 28, 2020, and was moderated by China-US Focus Editor-at-Large James Chau in Hong Kong.

Will “Trump shock” turn out to be a temporary blip in the course of American politics or a chronic disease that will continue to infect future relations for years to come? Stay tuned.

The last three months has seen a number of major policy statements by top Trump Administration officials. If there was any question that the Trump administration seeks a new Cold War confrontation with China, these documents and speeches provide the answer.

Making diplomacy fail may actually be the goal. But even if the hawks in America dream that confrontation will boost Trump’s re-election chances, they should understand that it could sink China-U.S. relations into a morass of incalculable proportions.