Both countries know that confrontation only leads to a dead end in the long run. A mix of cooperation and competition remains the norm that has worked for both countries in the past. But it’s difficult to strike a balance, and competition is likely to overwhelm cooperation, as it always has.

A joint early-warning system throws a curveball at the United States and the global military order.

Nuclear weaponry poses a special set of challenges as Donald Trump and the United States abandon past commitments. Restoring stable relationships between nuclear powers is essential, and China certainly has a place at the table.

The United States’s intention to establish missile sites in Asia has the potential to escalate into a new arms race. Does the US have the ability to build adequate missiles, where would the missiles be stationed, and how will such missiles influence security in the Asia-pacific region?

China, Russia, and the United States are in an interlocking trilateral dispute over whether to extend bilateral strategic nuclear arms control treaties between Moscow and Washington to China as well.

US withdrawal from the INF provokes anxiety in Europe and Asia and threatens to unleash a renewed global arms race. But all is not lost — there are still opportunities to rebuild trust and salvage the treaty.

Under Trump the US has moved towards warmer relations with Russia to counterbalance China’s rise. But existing legislative constraints—along with ongoing points of US-Russian enmity over Ukraine, election interference, and nuclear issues — make short-term détente unlikely.

The Trump administration has begun applying military pressure on China, not only in traditional areas of friction such as the South China Sea and Taiwan, but using arms control. Recent American withdrawal from the US-Russia INF Treaty may be part of a strategy to draw China into a potential new nuclear agreement.

China should participate in official discussions regarding its nuclear employment and targeting doctrines and, like Russia and the United States, make public the number of China’s nuclear warheads and delivery systems.