A choir of American children recently sang the Chinese song 'Ru Yuan' ('As You Wish') during a visit to the Temple of Heaven, garnering millions of likes online. Meanwhile, a wave of 'TikTok refugees,' or foreign influencers, is flooding the Chinese social media app 'Xiaohongshu,' or 'RedNote,' inadvertently opening new channels for mutual engagement between the peoples of the United States and China. At the same time, the Biden administration, then on its last few days, rolled out a series of policies targeting China, from semiconductors to artificial intelligence (AI) to connected vehicles. Former US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, who recently concluded his tenure, said: 'I've spent probably 80 percent of my time on the competitive edge with China and about 20 on the positive engagement,' claiming this was 'the right balance.' These events illustrate the richness and complexity of US-China relations.

China-US relations are multifaceted. Whether it's 'RedNote' or Burns, both represent different aspects of this relationship. Washington's zero-sum, even negative-sum, mind-set largely shapes its perception of and policies toward China — this is an undeniable fact. Equally true is the growing dissatisfaction among ordinary Americans with Washington's various 'decoupling' moves and the significant grass-roots demand for engagement with China, leading to a surge in organic exchanges. The harm caused by Washington's bias in its China policy is real, but so too is the healing power of increased people-to-people exchanges.