The two governments have been rather successful in managing their differences and avoiding possible crises, and they have the determination and the ability to continue safeguarding the overall China-US relationship. In the new normal, both sides need to direct their efforts at clearly explaining to their people the strategic intent of no conflict and no confrontation as well as their willingness to cooperate.

From the time President Obama assumed office in 2009 to the present, positive U.S.-China relations have been vital to the two countries and to the world at large. Forty-four years after establishing diplomatic relations, the world’s two greatest economic powers have forged unprecedentedly close ties. Unsurprisingly, the current relationship reflects varying degrees of cooperation as well as competition.

Difference and rivalry exist between China and the US, but it is also true that they share common interests and need cooperation. This “rivalry plus cooperation” relationship will continue, despite talk of war that some fear could develop into a self-fulfilling prophesy.

China believes that it can cultivate a relationship with the U.S. based on peaceful co-existence. However, the South China Sea is proving a collision point between U.S. hegemony and Chinese interests in safeguarding its own security and development.

There is an apparent risk that the US and China will each believe that they promote a win-win international order while suspecting the other of “power politics.” However, the real issue is not a simple choice between mutually beneficial interactions and realpolitik. What is really at stake is the question of which rules will govern a post-realpolitik order, and what kinds of power structures are necessary to support it. Here the US and China have much work to do in order to find converging paths.

If China and the US engage in earnest to build the new type of big-power relationship proposed by President Xi Jinping, based on the principles of “no confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and win-win through cooperation”, It will be a great help in reducing fears in America about China’s rise.

Over three administrations by both the Democratic and Republican parties, the S&ED has helped China and the US to pursue a new model of major-country relationship, and its effectiveness should be cherished by both sides. After the presidential elections this year, it will be critically important to guarantee a smooth development of China-US relations.

Despite US jitters about China’s rise, Beijing and Washington should build a partnership along the lines of what President Xi Jinping calls a “new type of major-country relationship” – no clash, no confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win through cooperation.

On 19 March, when attending the China Development Forum 2016 at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, former State Councilor Dai Bingguo had a dialogue with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the issue of avoiding the "Thucydides Trap".

The two countries are not rushing toward collision but thriving on forward-moving, parallel tracks. That’s been the record for more than 30 years, despite fretful narratives of potential conflict.