As most of the countries in the world start to emerge from the pandemic, international flights have gradually come back to life, although in a slow and restricted manner. China has adopted such a policy while trying to strike a balance between restoration of economic activities and prevention of COVID-19. But it seems that China and the U.S. don't see eye to eye on how the flights should be operated.

The Trump administration on May 5 scrapped a plan to ban Chinese passenger airlines from flying to the U.S. The new order, however, limits Chinese carriers to two weekly flights to the U.S.

Mark Weiss, a retired American Airlines captain and president of Weiss Consulting Group, said there are multiple components behind the U.S. easing the flight ban on Chinese Airlines: the political component as well as an epidemiological component.

"We've got to be concerned about the health of the passengers, the health of the citizens, from the point of view of the airlines on both sides," Weiss said. "Here in the United States … there is pushback from the president whose policies have been ramping up against China for a while."

The Chinese aviation regulator also said in its latest statement that foreign airlines currently unable to operate routes to China can choose one city in the country from which to run international flights once a week, which means U.S. flights will be able to access China.

Wang Dan, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit, said this statement could be regarded as China's response to the U.S.'s previous flight ban on China.

She thinks that the relationship between China and the U.S. has been bad since the COVID-19 pandemic, and this airline competition is just a reflection of the rising tension between the two countries.

"I don't think China can give the U.S. truly what it wants, the favorable treatment," Wang said. "Because that would put China in a very disadvantage places when it deals with other countries' airlines."

From the U.S. perspective, Weiss believes that Donald Trump is taking advantage of resuming China-U.S. passenger flights to show his capability and win more votes in the November election.

Weiss added that both China and the United States need to be more flexible. China-U.S. relations should become a win-win situation, not just in the short term but also in the long run.

Regarding the future of China-U.S. bilateral ties, U.S. political commentator Laura Schwartz said mixed messages are coming out of the Trump administration when it comes to China. Particularly, there are only five months before the U.S. presidential election, so the relationship between the two countries could fluctuate with Trump's polling in his own party and among his base of supporters. She also mentioned that Trump does think that looking tough on China will help him with his base, as he has seen his poll numbers slip.

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