Trump’s presidency drastically changed the American foreign policy landscape, which presents a challenge to Biden as he determines how best to engage in the world’s most significant bilateral relationship.

After four years of US-China tensions, the Biden administration should speed up U.S. economic recovery while restoring bilateral trust with China. That would foster global economic prospects. The reverse would undermine those prospects.

Trump’s presidency drastically changed the American foreign policy landscape, which presents a challenge to Biden as he determines how best to engage in the world’s most significant bilateral relationship.

The Trump administration’s China policy heavily affected the global technology ecosystem by targeting Huawei and creating barriers for the sale and trade of important computer chips. However, by pressuring China and its tech firms, the U.S. incentivized China to pursue a greater degree of self-sufficiency.

The U.S. president’s idea for a summit on democracy is ill-conceived, ill-timed and likely to be ill-fated. Such an event can only distract from solving the challenges posed by the pandemic, the disruptions of extremists and a divided society.

Biden’s cabinet picks on China are ripe with seasoned Beltway politicians, signaling a return to fair play and a restoration of protocol for American China policy. But there remain many points of dispute between Beijing and Washington, and there is no time to waste.

The Trump administration was riddled with strife, perhaps none more vociferous than his vendetta against China. Joe Biden is now left with a web of conflicts to untangle, but with common sense negotiations perhaps the ship will be righted sooner than expected.

The United States is at a turning point. It can heal the wounds inflicted by Donald Trump on China-U.S. relations if it’s willing to reverse its containment strategy and return to civilized principles.

When President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated next week, he will quickly move to transform most dimensions of US policy. A glaring exception is China. But if Biden maintains outgoing President Donald Trump’s confrontational approach to the world’s second-largest economy, he will come to regret it.

On the threshold of a new world order and a new China-U.S. reality, if we have not seen a clear path ahead for the bilateral ties, we might turn to history for some guide.