The U.S.–China summit is not about a reset. It is about whether the world’s two largest economies can make a fragile relationship more manageable. Leader-level engagement of this kind has been rare—the last U.S. presidential visit to China was in 2017—and since then the relationship has been marked by on-and-off confrontation, decoupling pressure and the pursuit of economic leverage.
As trade flows have declined and supply chains have shifted, both sides have become more willing to test each other’s vulnerabilities. But the links remain large enough that unmanaged escalation would still matter for growth, inflation, supply chains and markets.
