China Briefing | Are China and the US heading for a breather after months of sparring?

Name: Trump ‘pleaded’ for China to help him get re-elected, writes former US adviser Bolton in new book
Uploaded: 2020-06-20T01:30:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 34 s
Description: Trump ‘pleaded’ for China to help him get re-elected, writes former US adviser Bolton in new book

China-US relations have sunk to new lows, but a meeting between their top diplomats has raised the tantalising hope of a ceasefire

On top of this, it increasingly looks like Trump is Beijing’s favourite candidate in the upcoming American presidential elections

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A Berlin mural by graffiti artist Eme Freethinker features US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wearing face masks. Photo: AFP

Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:30am, 20 Jun 2020Updated: 10:07am, 20 Jun 2020

China-US relations have kept sinking to new lows over the past few months, with the two countries sparring on a wide range of fronts – from the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic to Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, Xinjiang, hi-tech developments, trade, arms race and ideology.

All this has heightened anxiety among investors and analysts over how much worse the bilateral ties – arguably the world’s most consequential – could get.

Then came the unusual and lengthy face-to-face meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday in Hawaii between Yang Jiechi, China’s top official in charge of foreign affairs, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at a time when the pandemic has forced world leaders to resort to virtual meetings for international diplomacy.

This has in turn raised the tantalising hope that both Beijing and Washington intend to take a breather and try to put a floor under their sharply deteriorating relations, as the United States heads into the final stretch before November’s presidential elections and China is worried about the increasingly hostile international environment.

01:34

Trump ‘pleaded’ for China to help him get re-elected, writes former US adviser Bolton in new book

But how long the break will last before both sides are at it again remains to be seen, as a new book by former US national security adviser John Bolton provides fascinating insights into President Donald Trump’s incoherent and impulsive foreign policy towards China.