U.S.-China relations have been on a downward trend for the past several years, with many in Washington now calling China the U.S.’s biggest threat and China moving aggressively to counter what it sees as American efforts to inhibit its economic development and prevent it from unifying with Taiwan. The year 2023 ended with some improvement and stabilization in U.S.-China ties after President Biden met President Xi in San Francisco. But with U.S. presidential elections and many other problems on the horizon, policymakers in both capitals seem skeptical that the positive summit vibe will be enough to stabilize ties through a raucous U.S. campaign in which China ties are a prime political issue.
Susan A. Thornton is a former career U.S. diplomat who served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2017-18.
She is currently a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School and a Senior Fellow at the Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center.
Thornton is also Director of the Forum on Asia Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution.