While the U.S. pays lip service to the notion that ASEAN is at the core of the Indo-Pacific region, U.S. actions show it is side-stepping to another direction. By contrast, China’s attitude toward Southeast Asia looks much more sincere.

The new U.S. president’s opening moves were generally steady and smooth, and some were successful. But America’s deep-rooted political and social contradictions will act as a constraint during Biden’s presidency.

The U.S. and others should help developing countries solve their problems, rather than using them as a playing field in a geopolitical competition with China. Excessive competition will not lead to the better world that the American president says he seeks.

China and the United States should seek to warm their relationship, even amid competition, and their leaders should meet. The international community would welcome such a meeting by the world’s largest and second-largest economies, as it would contribute to global stability.

As U.S. President Joe Biden contemplates course corrections after his first months in office, one change seems especially worthy of consideration: a shift to a more pragmatic, less ideological foreign policy.

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. core national interests are defined by the new administration as safeguarding American strength, promoting power sharing to U.S. advantage and upholding a stable and open international system.

The deterioration of China-U.S. relations has not ended, and a turnaround is unlikely. Given the intense frictions of recent years, both countries have built up a fixed mindset about diplomatic strategy that has been incorporated in their domestic politics. Superb diplomatic skills will be needed to avert confrontation.

Reflecting on the recent meeting in Alaska between China and the United States, one might be tempted to worry about the tough U.S. posturing. Closer examination, however, suggests it was just political theater staged for the media and domestic observers.

The new U.S. president will want to invest hard strategic resources in the Asia-Pacific region, which will require the use of diplomatic and economic measures to maintain its strategic presence in the Middle East. The arrangement looks reasonable, but it is doomed to fail.