Summary

US-China relations stand at a turning point.

The pre-Trump model of accommodation in the hope of changing China is done and dusted. The question now is whether or not China will manage to change the West.

But what replaces the old way of doing things? Will it be the Trump administration’s approach, assertive in style if not always substance? Or will there be an attempt to gloss over differences, suspend the decoupling, and arrive at some kind of new bilateral accommodation?

Whatever the ‘new normal’ in US-China relations ends up being, 2021 is likely to be the year that got the ball rolling.