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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Beijing in the latest of a series of high-level meetings between Chinese and U.S. leadership to ease tensions. After the meeting, Blinken said that the United States and China were focusing on “areas where we’re working to cooperate,” but also highlighted that competition and differences persist. He also warned that there was evidence that China had attempted to interfere in U.S. elections later this year.We asked four experts to evaluate the state of the U.S.-Chinese relationship and whether it’s headed for a detente or an escalation in tensions. Read more below.Collin Meisel Associate Director of Geopolitical Analysis Pardee Institute at the University of DenverA recent Pew poll highlighted just how much U.S. public opinion has soured on China in recent years, with eight in ten respondents having an unfavorable view of the People’s Republic of China versus four or five in ten a decade ago. Several Republican lawmakers also appear interested in giving new life to a U.S.-Chinese trade war — and they may get a chance if Donald Trump is elected to a second presidential term in November. Meanwhile, in the lead-up to the general election, the Biden administration has little incentive to work toward improved ties with Beijing, lest Biden’s political opponents use it as evidence that he is “soft on China” and out of step with American public opinion.Regardless, structural trends will likely contribute to an increasingly tense U.S.-Chinese relationship over the next several years. Despite recent downgrades in China’s economic growth forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, China’s economy is