Given their mutual economic dependence, both China and the U.S. know they must manage relations. Nobody wants a new cold war. Rational countries are unwilling to choose sides, and there is great pressure for accommodation.

Repairing and protecting American hegemony is a central theme for the White House and Congress. To accomplish these goals they need to create the specter of an enemy at the gates, to imagine an adversary that poses an existential threat.

Germany’s newly minted Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is laying shaky foundation with China by framing relations as a values-based competition with an “authoritarian regime.” She might want to take economic reality into account.

During the Cold War, Europe was America’s strategic priority. East Asia was largely a sideshow, even though the United States fought bloody wars in Korea and Vietnam, and also provided security for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Americans like to think the United States won the Cold War and they nostalgically believe the same approach will work with China. It won’t. In fact, healthy China-U.S. relations depend on Washington’s moving away from the myth.

High-level dialogues in 2021 between China and the United State clarified their positions. Now it’s imperative that the two rivals avoid a new cold war by engaging in substantive working-level talks.

Containment of China is a long-term U.S. strategy — one that continues to expand. Now guided by the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy, which was released in March 2021, a wide range of government departments are formulating anti-China policies. They are not going to stop.

Strategic competition between China and the United States should be characterized not as a new cold war but as an uneasy peace. Shooting is not likely to break out, but the two countries will remain in dread of each other in the coming decade.

Despite a meeting of presidents and intensive talks at lower levels, the United States has not fundamentally altered its position. This needs to change. Next year should be characterized by reasonable, constructive efforts — followed by action — to ease the current tensions.

The recent Summit for Democracy organized by U.S. President Joe Biden, indicates a new long-term focus for the US-China rivalry. This can be destructive. Whether the two countries can coexist without catastrophe is at the top of the agenda.