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I'm Christopher Lighten. This is Open Source.

The Biden administration is rewriting the terms and the tone of U.S. relations

with the People's Republic of China under Xi Jinping.

The short summary of the breakup might be irreconcilable differences.

We're uncoupling after 50 years of frustrated engagement.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken delivered the message

with the formality of a reigning power cautioning a restless rival.

Where the U.S. cannot control China's behavior, Blinken said,

we will shape the world the China operates in.

We will reboot our own economy and we'll tune up a global network of allies

to challenge and counter China's rise.

The message has been read as a strategy to contain or constrain China,

though those sea words were not in the Blinken speech.

Neither was the word cooperation, which had a 50-year run alongside competition

in the modern U.S. China discourse.

Our guests bring three critical angles of observation.

One was Prime Minister in Australia,

another a China watcher at the CIA.

...