U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has a wealth of political experience, unlike Donald Trump. A gradual return to more normal China-U.S. relations can be expected. But some aspects of Trumpism are likely to remain for some time.

China-U.S. relations will likely remain strained under incoming President Joe Biden though the style and some of the substance will change. While defending U.S. security partners in Asia and seeking change in many PRC economic policies, the new team seems interested in exploring opportunities for cooperating on public health, nonproliferation, and especially climate change, under John Kerry, the first U.S. special presidential envoy for climate.

After waiting for the political dust to settle following the U.S. election, President Xi Jinping congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and revealed key expectations about China-U.S. relations going forward.

As the U.S. attempts to divide Chinese society, its suppression of industry, verbal attacks and ideological stigmatization all point at painful, challenging conundrums in China’s development and reforms.

Americans don’t agree on much of anything nowadays. Yet they are largely united in their belief that China represents an existential challenge to their country and the international order it has long led. This combination of internal division and external demonization has made the Sino-American rivalry increasingly inescapable – and potentially catastrophic.

Will a Biden presidency significantly shift the China-U.S. relationship in a different direction after four years of Trump’s tough trade policy?

Devising an effective strategy to compete, cooperate, and co-exist with China will be one of US President-elect Joe Biden’s toughest foreign-policy challenges. And over the next two months, Sino-American relations are almost certain to get worse.

“Chimerica” is not workable. At the end of the day, China and the United States need to strengthen trust and cooperation incrementally while upholding multilateralism and eliminating conventional and nonconventional threats.

It is possible to move forward if a framework is agreed up for solving matters where competition is inevitable. The incoming Biden administration in the United States has an opportunity.

It’s no surprise that China-U.S. relations have had their ups and downs, as there are always differences between countries. But while all-around consensus may be elusive, they can always find some common ground. Opportunities abound.