The complexity of relations between China and the United States and the polarization of U.S. domestic politics are expected to persist for the foreseeable future. In an election year, the danger is significant. The U.S. political ecosystem has the potential to send shockwaves through bilateral relations.

Even though the United States acknowledges that the world is undergoing significant changes, it has failed to grasp the nature of the transformation. This is lamentable, not a positive development for the global community.

The first debate between the Republican Party’s candidates for next year’s US presidential election revealed major schisms over foreign policy. While former US Vice President Mike Pence and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley defended America’s support for Ukraine in Russia’s war of aggression, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy expressed skepticism. Former President Donald Trump – the unquestioned front-runner – skipped the event, but he, too, has objected to US involvement in that conflict.

America shamelessly uses other countries to further its own agenda, disregarding their needs. It has split the world and kept it in a state of perennial conflict since World War II and is now invoking the nightmarish return of the Cold War.

To glimpse how China is perceived in the West, a good place to start would be the titles of bestsellers. In 2015, the No. 1 bestseller in the United States was The Hundred-year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower. In 2017, there was Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? And this year, a trending one is Red-handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win.

At the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City in early January, the unmistakable undercurrent was U.S. competition with China. Clearly, China should increase its political support for Latin American countries in their efforts to gain equal footing with the United States.

The installation of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives portends stormy weather ahead for U.S.-China relations. President Joe Biden will face more congressional policy challenges as ultra-radical Republican exert their power. And if McCarthy follows through on a pledge to visit Taiwan, bilateral ties will be seriously compromised.

Stephen Roach has long been one of Wall Street’s most influential economists. His work has appeared in academic journals, books, congressional testimony a

The United States lacks the strength and influence to simultaneously contain both China and Russia. As with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, its policies will place it in strategic overdraft and lead to more strategic errors.

Republicans narrowly captured a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, so President Biden will likely face more internal pressure to play tough with China. But there is also reason to believe that tensions will ease as Trumpism fades.