Highs and lows mark China-US ties in 2025

Interwoven interests

Zheng Yongnian, director of the School of Public Policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), also cautioned against declaring a "turning point" or "bottoming out" in China-US ties following the trade negotiations and top-level engagements.

In an interview in November with Greater Bay Area Review, a new media outlet, Zheng said that China and the US are co-drivers of the post-1980s wave of globalization, and their interests remain interwoven across various fields — from economy and security to ocean and space.

As friction intensified, both sides actually became more rational, he noted. "In the past, we said that China-US ties were a 'struggle without rupture'. This time, we not only avoided rupture, but also made progress in a positive direction through struggle," Zheng added.

David Firestein, inaugural president and CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, noted that merely pulling back from threats is "not real progress", but rather a return to the previous status.

Firestein said that 2025 was a "difficult" and "tumultuous" year, because volatility and unpredictability dominated, during which the US policies on tariffs, trade and technology continuously oscillated, with stated positions shifting from week to week — and sometimes from day to day.

"But the one improvement that I do think we see is a tonal improvement. I think some of the language is more moderate," he said.