The Philippines is gearing up for a hotly contested presidential election, and the relationship with China across trade and security must be addressed by each candidate.

Europe is working out its own path in light of China-U.S. tensions. It will only cooperate with the U.S. on China where it suits its own politics and interests and with its own approaches and tools.

The recent Summit for Democracy organized by U.S. President Joe Biden, indicates a new long-term focus for the US-China rivalry. This can be destructive. Whether the two countries can coexist without catastrophe is at the top of the agenda.

The past week saw an increasing number of restrictions placed by the U.S. against Chinese entities.

The upcoming Winter Olympics may have been an opportunity for the U.S. to make a friendly entrance to China - instead, the official boycott by White House representatives has made it the latest of barbed exchanges between the two powerful nations.

Playing to his domestic audience, the U.S. president must appear tough on human rights. But this has its limits. America’s half-baked Olympic boycott applies only to diplomats, not to athletes. To do more would risk domestic and international blowback.

The postwar foundation laid by the United States has been shaken, and the Western model is in trouble as never before. The primary creator of the liberal international order has unwittingly sabotaged itself.

In 2018, Steve Bannon, then-US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, argued that the United States needed to “decouple” from China. Since then, the term has become a fixture in discussions of Sino-American relations – to the point that some, such as former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, have warned that it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How salient is that risk today?

President Joe Biden inherited his predecessor’s strategy of great power competition, but he has now changed its style and approach. No longer is it “America alone” but a new method making better use of its values, position in global governance and strategic alliances.

The future of Sino-American relations rests with maximising the yield of what can be changed, and minimising the relevance of what can’t be changed. The multitude of differences that the U.S. and China can’t resolve must be set aside to allow for genuine change to take place.