Washington's approach toward Beijing under President Donald Trump was a "recipe for American failure" and the Biden administration needs to "seriously rethink" that approach, former Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani said recently.

The Trump administration's China policy hardened a consensus among both Republicans and Democrats that "China is at root an adversary that must be thwarted," Mahbubani wrote in an essay published in March on Global Asia, a quarterly publication of the Seoul-based East Asia Foundation. 

Mahbubani, currently a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, said the United States will head toward a disaster if the Biden administration continues Trump's policy on China. 

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Relations between China and the U.S. have sharply worsened since the Trump administration launched a trade war in 2018. Tensions have also escalated over the case of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, COVID-19, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Taiwan and the South China Sea. 

"The reality is that the Trump administration's policies on China damaged America's standing, did no real harm to China and did not arrest China's growing trade and economic links with the rest of the world," Mahbubani said in his article "Was Trump Right or Wrong on China? Biden's Answer Will Shape the Future." 

He suggested for the Biden administration to "first stop and do a cool, dispassionate analysis of U.S.-China relations and then work out a coherent, credible and comprehensive long-term strategy toward Beijing."

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Many in the world would agree with the assessment of the Harvard Kennedy School that support for the Communist Party of China (CPC) among the 1.4 billion Chinese grew from 86.1 percent in 2003 to 93.1 percent in 2016, Mahbubani said, calling on Washington to understand and respect that fact. 

The Biden administration should acknowledge Trump's failure on China and "chart an alternative path toward Beijing," he said. The administration should press the "pause" button on the geopolitical contest with China, "give a quiet wink to the Canadian government" to release Meng Wanzhou, develop a realistic understanding of China and stop insulting it, he added. 

It would be a big mistake for the U.S. to underestimate China and view their ties with arrogance, Mahbubani stressed. 

"At the end of the day, what most of humanity would like to see is a rational understanding and a rational discourse between the world's two leading powers, America and China," he wrote.

Last month, senior Chinese and American officials met face to face for the first time after Biden took office. 

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended a high-level strategic dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in the Alaskan city of Anchorage. 

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Yang told reporters after the two-day event that the dialogue was candid, constructive and helpful, though there are still some important differences between the two sides. 

China will firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests, and China's development and growth is unstoppable, he stressed. 

The two countries should handle their relations in the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, so as to move forward the bilateral relationship on a sound and stable track. 

Dialogue is better than confrontation, Wang said, adding that China made it clear to the Americans that sovereignty is a matter of principle and they should not underestimate China's determination to defend it.