One of the Trump administration’s most widely touted projects, and least understood, is the trade war with China. Despite the grand rhetoric and lofty promises made to the American people, the escalating taxation on trade is increasing the burden on the already strained American consumer.

Trump made a show out of confronting opponents American or foreign. Though he made China a key opponent throughout his presidency, the fallout from his political movement in the U.S. could make repairing Sino-American relations a second priority in the next presidential term.

When President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated next week, he will quickly move to transform most dimensions of US policy. A glaring exception is China. But if Biden maintains outgoing President Donald Trump’s confrontational approach to the world’s second-largest economy, he will come to regret it.

U.S. President Donald Trump has suffered a decisive loss in his trade war with China. It is now in the interest of both countries to speedily resume trade and investment cooperation, cooperate to end the COVID-19 threat and implement the Paris climate accord.

China and the United States need to jointly map the way forward to eliminate as much ambiguity as possible. Proper framing of the issues can serve to avoid biased interpretations and lead to common ground.

To get relations back on track, the US and China must pursue a more nuanced approach to their bilateral economic policy; here are five steps to do that.

The pandemic has accelerated the US pushback against China across the military, economic, and communication dimensions to new heights. There are serious risks of a US-China race to the bottom.

The coronavirus pandemic deflated President Trump’s touted trade deal, as data suggests that Beijing will likely fail to meet key commitments due to suppressed global demand. If coronavirus kills the US-China trade deal, other political and economic disagreements could escalate the US-China rivalry into a potential Cold War.

The stability that was expected from the signing of the Phase One trade deal is now a distant reality in the wake of COVID-19. The U.S. and China are entangled in blame games and trade disputes, setting the stage for further, more devastating escalation.

Tariffs and blame-games have only complicated China and the United States’ response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Instead, cooperation could not only contribute to improving global and economic health but also help resolve other issues that are eroding the bilateral relationship today.