The Senate’s high-tech industry proposal marks a change in tone for the nation - no longer appealing to domestic job creation, the bill’s selling point lays bare the motivation to compete with China’s economy.

Wide-ranging conversation may signal a U.S. intention to appease China. But the Biden administration apparently wants to avoid being seen as overly provocative, even as it adopts a competitive and confrontational stance on the real issues and creates diversions with others.

The U.S. position on China has become increasingly antagonistic in recent years, but U.S. pressure is more likely to deepen Chinese hostility than it is to create productive reform.

The recently concluded G-7, U.S.-EU, and NATO Summits in Europe showed newfound coordination and common purpose vis-à-vis China. This represents a new and more confrontational stage in Sino-Western relations. China’s reactions to the joint communiqués were quick to condemn them. Expect heightened tensions between China and the West in the months ahead.

The Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 is a comprehensive attack that marks the advent of a comprehensive containment strategy against China by the United States. In response, China should cast aside unrealistic expectations, maintain strategic focus and put our own house in order.

Three major matters underpin the future of China-U.S. relations. First, there is no such thing as a destiny of doom as presented in the concept of the Thucydides trap. On the contrary, the future of the Sino-U.S. relationship is largely up to both countries to assess, determine and choose.

The United States and China are embroiled in a contest that might prove more enduring, more wide-ranging, and more intense than any other international competi­tion in modern history, including the Cold War. In both countries, fears have grown that the contest might escalate into open conflict.

Southeast Asia’s coalition of small-to-medium sized nations have hosted superpower conflicts, yet they are overshadowed by larger regional powers on the global stage time and time again. American leadership will struggle to find welcoming allies there without a drastic upgrade in its dealings with ASEAN member nations.

Efforts to placate both the United States and the PRC are proving ever more challenging, as the recent Group of Seven and NATO summits have shown.

The problem of an aging society afflicts both China and the United States, and there is plenty of room for cooperation to address common interests. As the demographic trend continues, the impact on their respective agendas will only become more pronounced.