High-level dialogues in 2021 between China and the United State clarified their positions. Now it’s imperative that the two rivals avoid a new cold war by engaging in substantive working-level talks.

Containment of China is a long-term U.S. strategy — one that continues to expand. Now guided by the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy, which was released in March 2021, a wide range of government departments are formulating anti-China policies. They are not going to stop.

Strategic competition between China and the United States should be characterized not as a new cold war but as an uneasy peace. Shooting is not likely to break out, but the two countries will remain in dread of each other in the coming decade.

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.