New normal in US-China ties? Compete and co-operate

LET'S face reality: the era of so-called "engagement" between Beijing and Washington is ending and we all need to adjust to that.

Indeed, the opening of diplomatic relations between the two nations, followed by the end of the Cold War and the integration of China into the global economy, launched more then four decades of expanding economic and political ties between the two Pacific powers.

But the growing global challenges that China is posing to the United States has energised protectionist and China-bashing sentiments in Washington, which have played into the hands of nationalist forces in Beijing, spawning a costly trade war and producing concerns that the relationship between the two countries is degenerating into a new Cold War. But even if the notion of a full-blown Sino-American engagement may be passé, there is nothing inevitable about the idea of a Cold War II. From that perspective, that US and Chinese trade negotiators have agreed to delay a new round of tariffs that were scheduled to set in on Dec 15 comes as good news.