US has ample room to move forward its relations with China, expert says

In October, China joined COVAX, a global initiative by the World Health Organization to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines. The US has yet to join the initiative.

US-China coordination is more likely to occur under the umbrella of multilateral or multinational organizations of which both are a member, according to Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings John L. Thornton China Center.

"If the United States and China both join the COVAX Facility to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to those in greatest need, that could provide a more frictionless platform to coordinate contributions to global efforts to deliver over 11 billion vaccine treatments to people on every continent than if the United States and China attempted to replicate COVAX's efforts on a bilateral basis," Hass wrote in an article posted on the Brookings website on Monday.

In addition to distributing COVID-19 vaccines, the US and China have opportunities to cooperate on climate change and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to Allen.

Allen said he had visited some Chinese cities, including an eco-city in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province. It is a modern city built completely in a climate-friendly environment.

"We are not doing that. We could probably collaborate in some ways to figure out where they have succeeded or failed and how we could, in fact, learn from that," he said.

In the podcast, Allen said the incoming Biden administration needs an "overarching grand strategy" with respect to China, embracing all dimensions, including the economy, security, science and technology and the people.

"Chinese people and the American people are actually quite close, and there is real opportunity for us to capitalize on that," he said.

Allen said US President-elect Joe Biden has a "real opportunity to turn the page" on the relationship but cautioned that Biden would have to face a "skeptical "Congress.

"That does not mean they want a confrontational relationship with China, but they want China treated in their mind as the great strategic rival that it is and to hold them accountable," he said.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said China hopes that the next US administration will return to a "sensible approach", restore normalcy to bilateral relations, resume dialogue and restart cooperation.

"China-US relations have come to a new crossroads, and a new window of hope is opening," Wang said in a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency.