Highs and lows mark China-US ties in 2025

Firestein noted that US foreign policy is failing because it is built on flawed psychological projections and fundamental misunderstandings of China's true ambitions.

He identified four primary errors: the false belief that China wants to supplant the US as the world's only superpower; the incorrect assumption that China intends to overthrow the existing international order; the shift toward a zero-sum mindset; and the new perception of economic interdependence as a vulnerability rather than a stabilizing force.

A policy "predicated on these incorrect and flawed assumptions" is destined to" veer off course and to fail to achieve our own stated objectives", Firestein warned.

"So we've got to get back to a more rational and pragmatic way of looking at the relationship, and a way of looking at the relationship that is less emotional, less ideological and less political, because those tendencies are taking us in the wrong direction," he said.

There are still "a host of issues" on which Washington and Beijing "can and should try to work together to generate better outcomes for both countries and for the world",Firestein said, citing trade, global public health including pandemics, and key scientific and security challenges such as trying to find a cure for cancer and cooperating on artificial intelligence.