After a 40 plus year run, the U.S.-China relationship has come to the proverbial fork in the road. Which way will America go?

For the sake of the shared interests of the human family, the U.S. needs to join hands with China and other countries for global governance and deal with urgent challenges, including the suppression of the COVID-19 pandemic and a reinvigoration of the world economy.

The ball is now in America’s court. The choices the U.S. makes for itself are critical. We should be patient as we wait to find out whether or not the Biden administration can make a historic decision for the good of human civilization.

China-U.S. relations should not be defined by vicious strategic competition but rather by a nurturing of mutual trust. The greatest obstacle is presented by China hawks in U.S. strategic circles who want to hijack American policy and prevent Biden from breaking away from Trumpism.

In a recent poll the new U.S. president’s approval among American adults was 59 percent. But on the diplomatic front, and especially on China policy, the administration’s performance has not only been mediocre but is laden with escalating risks of confrontation.

U.S. strategy seeks to keep other countries permanently subordinate and backward, while many — including China and Russia — aspire to an equitable and just world order with peaceful development.

Eminent scholar on East Asia, who played an early role in laying the groundwork for reconciliation between China and the United States, died in December at age 90. But the ideas expounded in his writings continue to foster understanding.

Despite a confrontational summit in Alaska, the U.S. and China lack the military appetite for a new “Cold War.” The reality is both sides have more to lose from a direct confrontation then they could gain.

A meeting in Anchorage, representing the midway point between the U.S. and China, was nothing close to a middle ground for either country. Without a productive agenda that includes compromises, the two great powers are not going to be able to cooperate.

Although the Biden administration’s approach to strategic competition is quite different from the Trump administration’s, it does not necessarily follow that China–U.S. relations will stabilize and improve.