The phone call between China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday, at the latter's invitation, has highlighted the scale of the challenge that lies ahead for the two sides to get their bilateral relationship back on track.

In the first major exchange between the countries since the new US administration took office, Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, stressed that the relationship between China and the United States is at "a critical juncture".

He urged the US to play a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, uphold the spirit of no conflict, non-confrontation and win-win cooperation; properly manage the differences between the two sides and push forward the sound and stable development of China-US relations.

Although there was nothing new in this, since this has been Beijing's consistent stance toward the US, the Joe Biden administration should be clearheaded about what Yang was referring to when he said that the two countries should respect each other's core interests, political systems and development paths, and run their own affairs well.

Blinken on his part reinforced why the divergences between the two countries have become so intractable. Adopting a "hardball" stance, he signaled the Biden administration would continue its predecessor's policies of trying to stir up trouble in China's autonomous regions and Hong Kong.

Yet although Blinken's message was essentially the same as Biden's first foreign policy speech on Thursday, it is perhaps worth pointing out that there is a marked difference in the stances of the Biden administration and its "maximum pressure" doting predecessor, since Biden also said that the US stood ready to "work with Beijing when it's in America's interest to do so".

And despite all the tough talk, the fact remains the two sides have a common interest in maintaining regional stability and peace, and deepening their economic and trade cooperation.

In their last meeting in 2015, when Blinken was deputy secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration and Yang was China's foreign minister, Blinken said the US and China could cooperate on a series of issues in meaningful ways, and the US was willing to do so.

The first part of that assessment remains unchanged, the question is whether the US is still of a mind to cooperate.

If the Biden administration isn't, it will simply be repeating the mistakes of the former administration and it doesn't take a crystal ball to see where that road leads. If it is, the outlook for the future will brighter.