Stephen Orlins talks about the challenges facing US-China relations and the career of a "small potato."

The absence of an international rival has been a disaster for domestic politics.

The US is forcing a Cold War on China.

Scholars believe that it is not advisable to compromise with or to just confront the U.S., but common rules of the game should be established.

A New Cold War between China and the United States will be profoundly more catastrophic than the US-Soviet Cold War of the last century. Unless we have a planet to spare there is no justification for it. Intelligent idealism is needed to avert it.

While the 90 day “truce of Bueno Aires” buys time for negotiations during the US-China trade war, it does little to address the real problems of the China-US relationship. Instead of succumbing to unnecessary hysteria, the US-China relationship should move towards a “cooperative rivalry.”

American policymakers increasingly favor confronting China.

Why are bilateral statistics moving the wrong way?

Countries are too interdependent for a cold war.

An unsettling consensus is fast forming in the strategic community: the United States and China are headed toward a long-term geopolitical conflict. The two countries may never return to constructive engagement, but they can probably avoid a destructive cold war.