Editor's note: After a prolonged period of limited official exchanges, the China-U.S. relationship is now witnessing a return to diplomacy with the back-to-back visits of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to China. To what extent can these high-level interactions bridge the trust deficit between the two nations? To delve more on the complex China-U.S. bilateral relations, CGTN's Sr. International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with Daniel Russel, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and currently Vice President, International Security and Diplomacy at the New York-headquartered Asia Society Policy Institute. Russel played a pivotal role as a special advisor to former U.S. President Barack Obama, contributing to the formulation of Obama's Asia-Pacific and China policies. The views expressed in the video are his own and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Edited excerpts:

CGTN: With the consecutive visit of Secretary Blinken earlier and now Secretary Yellen, who's going to visit Beijing soon, are we witnessing a resurgence of diplomatic engagement between the world's two most prominent economies and powers? 

Russel: Well, what we witnessed was a blockage of diplomatic engagement between two major powers in the world, which is inexcusable and highly problematic. So, it's long past time for not only cabinet secretaries to meet but for U.S. and Chinese officials at every level, of every department, to be meeting because there is a lot of business that needs to be conducted. There's a lot of work that needs to be done and the relationship itself has been so badly damaged, both during COVID-19 but also because of political problems, etc., that we really need to restart the lines of communication. 

CGTN: Can we expect some tangible outcomes from these high-level engagements that we are seeing now between China in the U.S.? 

Russel: Given the starting point in U.S.-China relations and the fact that there's been so little contact and so much animosity and rhetoric hurled from the podiums on each side, I don't imagine that all that much work has been done to lay the groundwork for ministers and cabinet secretaries to make announcements about grand deliverables.

That said, the Department of the Treasury, the Ministry of Finance, the central bank, it's a slightly different world than the Department of State and the Foreign Ministry, let alone our defense ministries. These are people who have a habit of collaboration. 

The global financial situation is fraught. Janet Yellen herself as the Fed chair, the head of the U.S. central bank, has lots of experience with the governor of the People's Bank of China and other top officials and I think there are some new officials on the Chinese side but between the G20 and the other contacts that financial regulators have with one another, I think that is probably more likely that Janet Yellen's visit will yield some productive results. 

CGTN: If we can roll back time and go back a few months when Secretary Blinken's then-scheduled visit was delayed by a controversy surrounding a Chinese weather balloon. Recently, the Pentagon has released a report that said that the balloon actually didn't collect any information when it was flying over the U.S. airspace. In hindsight, do you think it was a case of much ado about nothing and people overreacted at that point in time? 

Russel: The fact that the revelation and downing of this device in this balloon led to a five-month delay in the critically important in-person meetings between the top diplomats of our two countries, that's, in my view, unforgivable and irresponsible. 

Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State announced at the time the balloon was over the United States that he was obliged to postpone his visit. He didn't cancel it. He picked up the phone and contacted Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and conveyed publicly that he wanted to maintain the communication and that this was merely a delay. But what's done is done. 

And although it's five months late, now at last the product of the Bali consensus between President Xi and President Biden, namely that the United States and China should get back to work, has started to move. It's just moving awfully slowly and it's quite late in the game. 

CGTN: Most observers agree that at the core of the tensions between the U.S. and China lies the lack of trust in each other. What do you think are the key reasons, if you can sum it up, key reasons behind this mistrust and what immediate actions can be taken to bridge this trust deficit and steer the relationship in a positive direction? 

Russel: I wish I had a good and easy answer to both parts of your question. What caused this and what can be done about it? There is no one single cause for the steady downward spiral in the relationship and in the mutual trust – first between the two governments and secondly, between the two people. This is really dangerous. 

And the growth in mistrust and suspicion towards the other, even hostility towards the other is very hard to reverse. It was clearly exacerbated by the quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that it wasn't possible for people to meet for normal business, normal exchanges, etc., to be conducted. Everyone in the world suffered from that to some degree. 

I'm not a pessimist, but I think that what it means is that we have no time to waste, that we have to work at every level and take advantage of every opportunity to rebuild connections, to find areas where we do agree to help our people, whether they are tourists or students or business people or policymakers, spend time engaging directly with each other in the other's country to the extent possible. So, opening the door, laying out a welcome mat. These are very common-sense sorts of steps but they're necessary. 

And I'm very glad to note that I think I see a shift now, back to the healthier and more traditional acceptance of the fact that there are both areas of disagreement and competition and areas of important cooperation or coordination. 

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