The new US administration claims it has adopted "strategic patience" in its approach toward China. Yet China was frequently mentioned as a challenge in the Biden administration's telephone diplomacy over the past week.

But there is a variety of pressing issues, such as the pandemic and climate change, requiring cooperation between the two countries as soon as possible.

Nearly two weeks have passed since the Joe Biden administration took office, and it has not yet offered any sign that it is ready to reset relations. But its remarks on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the South China Sea and East China Sea and Taiwan may put up barriers to dialogues.

In its statements on Biden's telephone diplomacy with his counterparts in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, the White House said China was a major topic for discussion. Yet none of the three countries even mentioned China in their respective statements on his calls.

The discrepancy between the statements of the US and the three European countries only reinforces the reluctance of European countries to fall in behind the US against China. The European countries had already driven home that message to the previous administration. They have now made it clear to the new administration that they do not want to be dragged into a new Cold War. They want the US and China to work together for the good of the international community.

Fundamentally, as Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai said in a forum on Thursday, the question the United States needs to answer is whether it can accept a country different from itself to rise, and whether it can respect the Chinese people's rights to pursue a better life.

If the US were to give positive replies to these questions, all problems with its relations with China could be properly resolved. And vice versa.

Differences and divergences between China and the US existed in the past. They do so now, and no doubt they will do in the future. But that should not be a cause for confrontation. Their differences should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation or else shelved.

Competition is natural. There is no reason why confrontation and antagonism should characterize their relations.

As Cui said, if Sino-US ties are likened to a ship, it carries the "well-being" of not only the two peoples, but people everywhere. The two countries are duty-bound to make sure the ship can cleave through the waves.

Over the past four years, Beijing exercised "strategic patience" in the belief that Washington would come to its senses. The Biden administration should not squander the window of opportunity to mend relations.