The U.S. effort to impede China’s rise is in conflict with its regional strategy to gain benefits. To whip up its allies, it makes groundless accusations against China, but these are unlikely to persuade other countries to become America’s anti-China vanguard.

The innovation allowed the United States to lay aside its ideological “domino theory” in Asia and transformed China and the United States from enemies to friends. It also inspired a great political awakening in other countries.

As the anniversary of President Nixon’s secret trip to China in February 1972 approaches, it’s critical to recall the dramatic changes that occurred between China, the United States, and the world.

The positive turn initiated by Richard Nixon 50 years ago seems to have ground to a halt. The China-U.S. relationship has hit a low point. But while America has come to regard China as its primary strategic competitor, there are ways to get back on track.

Past experience is a guide for the future, so what can we learn today from the normalization of China-U.S. relations? First, we must be realistic. Second, we must be willing to break conventional rules.

China is interwoven with the American economy and far more open and free than it was in 1972. If ideology did not prevent normalization when Nixon broke the ice, it should certainly not impede bilateral relations today.

In the age of globalization, foreign policy sways our daily life more than people could imagine. A trade war leads to soaring price of consumer goods, which means you have to pay more for groceries, and sanctions on solar panels could mean more greenhouse gas emission, which creates greater peril of climate change. Disturbingly, Washington’s current China policy, a policy that could mean the difference between war and peace, prosperity and destitution, is based on some seriously misleading claims.

By starting and sustaining a tech war against China, Washington has placed itself on the wrong side of history. Like its trade war, the battle in the high-technology sector will turn out to be difficult to win.

There is no need for China to overreact to the latest strategy report, but it needs to be prepared for pressure from the United States, which will likely focus on the Indo-Pacific region for decades to come.

The unfortunate Japanese experience in boosting domestic demand and setting trade policy can be drawn upon today. Hopefully, China will not repeat the mistakes of Japan. Frictions between China and the United States can be addressed if they are willing to meet each other halfway.