Vasilis Trigkas is an assistant professor of global affairs jointly appointed at Schwarzman College and the Department of International Relations, Tsinghua University.
At their October meeting in South Korea last year, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, recognising mutual vulnerability to export restrictions, agreed to suspend some of the most draconian measures they had imposed on each other: US port fees on Chinese-built vessels and Chinese export controls on rare earths. They also announced further summit-level talks.
The leaders have since met twice: Trump visited Beijing in May, Xi visited Washington in September. They are expected to meet again at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen later this month.
Some analysts have proclaimed the arrival of strategic empathy, perhaps even cooperation. Yet the reality hardly warrants such optimism. China remains the rising power and the United States the power in relative decline.