They won’t resolve the significant issue of how China and the U.S. should go forward. But at least the talks established a strategic consensus on managing competition. More talks are likely — even amid quarrels.

U.S. Deputy of State Wendy Sherman recently talked with Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi on her visit to China. As relations remain contentious, it’s important that both China and the U.S. keep communication channels plural, open, and as bilaterally reciprocated as possible.

If the U.S. ally plays politics in its courts, other countries may follow its lead. Canada won’t look good if China and the U.S. decide to cut a deal regarding the extradition of Meng Wanzhou. It will be left out in the cold with a big boomerang knot on its head.

U.S. official’s visit to Tianjin illustrates that America’s intent to deal with China from a “position of strength” will not work. Attempts to force China to change while threatening its core interests will be ineffective in this moment of high competition.

The measures have dismally failed to meet the objectives of the Trump administration, and Biden should lift them immediately. Doing so, with China following suit, will usher in a new period of robust expansion that supports economic recovery on both sides of the Pacific.

Biden has yielded to pressure in a domestic political struggle and has refused to give up the tradition of flaunting U.S. superiority by subduing any power that may grow to challenge America’s hegemonic position in the world.

It is time for China, once and for all, to counter the ideological demonization of the United States and explain itself to the world. To do that, it needs to articulate convincing values and ideas as alternatives to American-style democracy.

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.

A new cold war between China and the United States will not look like the one between the U.S. and Soviet Union. It will involve entirely new forms of competition. This is the direction the Biden administration is heading as it seeks to suppress China.

The general mood in the relationship is better than it was toward the end of the frenzied Trump term. But it’s too early to know if a true rebound has occurred. The Biden administration has signaled that it will go even further than Trump when it comes to China policy.