US-China summit seen as managing tensions rather than achieving breakthrough

But some American China watchers said the results fell short of a major breakthrough and were more about managing tensions than resolving the fundamental differences between the two countries.

Mike Kuiken, vice-chair of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told the South China Morning Post that the summit was largely about “how do we hold the status quo in place”.

“I just don’t expect breakthroughs,” Kuiken said. “I think every breakthrough – which I would argue is probably most likely to be incremental – is going to be through hard-fought diplomatic discussions and negotiation.”