Despite a meeting of presidents and intensive talks at lower levels, the United States has not fundamentally altered its position. This needs to change. Next year should be characterized by reasonable, constructive efforts — followed by action — to ease the current tensions.

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.

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.

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.

While the United States talks about the need to prevent conflict with China, it engages purposefully in sabotage — especially regarding Taiwan and the South China Sea. While nations can design mechanisms to deal with unforeseen events, no guardrail can prevent a deliberate act.

President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping finally talked, but now comes the hard work of resolving differences and managing others to maintain the world’s most important bilateral relationship.

The statement by U.S. President Joe Biden and others that America does not seek to change the Chinese system sounds good on the surface. But is it hiding an iron fist in a velvet glove?

Though Xi Jingping’s absence from Glasgow’s COP26 summit has been roundly criticized, the virtual one-on-one summit between Xi and Joe Biden may have produced more actions of consequence, at a fraction of the cost.