US-China ties may have hit a wall since Xi-Biden summit, noted Chinese commentator warns

‘Fundamental distrust’ must not prevail, or ‘another crisis’ cannot be ruled out, US-China relations expert Da Wei tells Beijing forum

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Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden walk in the gardens at the Filoli Estate in Woodside, California, during their summit in November 2023. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00pm, 8 Jul 2024Updated: 11:00pm, 8 Jul 2024

Moves to stabilise China-US ties may have reached their “limit” since a summit eight months ago, a leading Chinese political scholar has warned.

Da Wei, director of the Centre for International Security and Strategy (CISS) at Tsinghua University, said both countries needed to make their intentions and goals more clear and convincing to each other.

This was crucial to preventing “fundamental distrust”, Da told an international security forum in Beijing on Sunday.

He also warned of “negative development” in bilateral ties, particularly on Taiwan, and technological and economic issues, noting that recent remarks from senior officials on either side had been marked by impatience, frustration, anxiety and disappointment.

“This tendency is not good,” the US-China relations specialist told a panel at the World Peace Forum, which was jointly hosted by Tsinghua and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, a government-run policy group.

“Another crisis or some kind of confrontation” could not be ruled out if the present trajectory continued, he cautioned.