SYNOPSIS: 48 years after President Nixon's trip to China and 42 years after President Carter and Vice Premier Deng Xiao made the decision to establish diplomatic relations, the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China has hit the rock bottom. The growing hostility between two first and second largest economies in the world is threatening to derail the global pursuit for peace and security. Will there be a reset of the relationship in 2021? Can a new paradigm of managing the bilateral relationship be found? What should Washington do and what could Beijing do to stabilize the relationship and find ways to compete to make each nation great and cooperate to respond to global challenges?
SUSAN A. THORNTON is a Senior Fellow and Research Scholar at the Yale University Law School Paul Tsai China Center, 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. Until July 2018, Thornton was Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State and led East Asia policy making amid crises with North Korea, escalating trade tensions with China, and a fast-changing international environment. In previous State Department roles, she worked on U.S. policy toward China,
Korea and the former Soviet Union and served in leadership positions at U.S. embassies in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus and China.
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