Americans must be careful that we do not allow China saber rattling, an expansion of their military prowess, evidenced by a testing of their first stealth jet, the construction of their first aircraft carrier and tussles over small islands in the East China Sea to draw us into an extended arms race that we can ill afford.

With the final U.S. presidential debate taking place on Monday, President Barack Obama and Republican contender Mitt Romney sparred over foreign policy—with China taking center stage. Despite Mr. Romney’s aggressive rhetoric, would the Republican prove a better choice for improved U.S.-China relations?

David Shambaugh charts the course for U.S.-China relations and writes that the global importance of US-China relations means that this is a marriage in which divorce is not an option. The stakes are high. Yet the competitive trend is likely to continue into the future—absent a newly emergent global threat that challenges both nations to forge greater cooperation.

In about two weeks, a winner will be declared in the 2012 U.S. presidential election and the chosen candidate will work to form his administration. Wang Honggang writes that an understanding of how each administration would handle the next four years of the bilateral relationship with China is critically important.

When South Sudan succeeded from the North, analysts predicted a prolonged period of confrontation. However, Khartoum and Juba recently agreed to resolve several outstanding disputes, with the promise of talks in the future.

For most of its history, the relationship between China and the US has been defined by the relative asymmetry in power between the two countries. Such imbalance has given rise to complex and often contradictory views of one another between Chinese and Americans. Now however, it is possible to chart a new course forward based on mutual symmetry and respect.

In spite of the fact that China and the US have converging interests in counter-terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation and Palestine-Israel peace in the Middle East, it can be noted that some of their fundamental political and security interests are different, and even conflict with each other.

The US rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific can hardly be taken as a positive development. China should certainly take due steps to respond to the adverse consequences of the new US strategy, but not overreact.

Increasingly harsh rhetoric and combative trade actions between China and the US have given rise to the belief both countries are inevitably headed toward a new Cold-War style confrontation. However this outdated Cold-War framework does not take into account the full extent of China-US ties and the shared incentives both countries have in seeing the other succeed.

China’s mission is for peaceful development towards a harmonious world. This cannot be accomplished without healthy and stable relations between major countries, especially between China and the US.