Former US vice-president and Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden recently said China is not “bad folks” and China is not “competition for us.” His remarks have sent waves across the US. People from President Donald Trump to core members of his team, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have lashed out at Biden.

Biden also holds strong values-based prejudice against China. He insists that the reasons China does not pose a threat to the US are that China has its hands full dealing with its domestic and regional problems, such as tensions in the South China Sea, poverty in its western areas and corruption.

It is very likely that Biden, as the Democratic 2020 presidential front-runner, will adjust his narrative on China under pressure from Republicans and conservative forces.

The current US administration deems China as its strategic competitor, as with a few US elites. But some people have brought the China threat theory to an extreme. That Biden, a veteran politician, publicly sang a different tune from the Trump administration at least shows he and some US elites believe the China threat theory played up by Washington has gone too far.

China is the world’s second-largest economy and still growing. US right-wing elites are concerned that the strength of China will exceed that of the US. Therefore, Washington feels it a big issue as to what kind of country China is and what China’s development means to the US.

The problem is the US administration is dealing with this issue in a simplistic and extreme approach and seems to lack the ability to understand China and craft sensible policies.

People like Pompeo hyped hostility and pushed forward extreme China policies. If China’s policymakers react like their US counterparts, a new Cold War may soon take shape.

Kiron Skinner, director of policy planning at the US State Department, said recently the rivalry between the two is “a fight with a really different civilization and a different ideology.” But should different civilizations fight with each other? Is such a fight destined to be zero-sum?

Since the US adopts an ideologically aggressive gesture, China has long felt threatened. But with China’s growing strength, it has begun to feel that the US does not have such a strategy as to overthrow China, and more people believe the two countries can avoid a strategic collision.

Washington views China as its strategic competitor and launched a trade war against China, which has altered Chinese society’s view toward the US. What China and the US mean to each other depends on how they interact with each other. If the US carries out forcible containment against China, then China has no other option but to take all necessary countermeasures.