After Brief Window, US-China Relationship Back On Rocky Path

The meeting on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit came three months after China staged major military exercises in fury after Nancy Pelosi, then US House speaker, defiantly visited Taiwan.

"I think there was a moment where it seemed like the deterioration was slowing or perhaps even being arrested, that potentially we might be able to put a floor under the relationship," said Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

"Increasingly, that doesn't seem to be possible in at least the near term without some very creative diplomacy but also potentially a change of views -- mostly from Beijing, but also by some in Washington as well," he said.

"The relationship is clearly deteriorating into tit-for-tat cycle, and it's not clear how we get out of that loop."

Read the full story and more from AFP published in Barron's.