The 2023 National Intelligence Strategy released on Thursday is an unfortunate new expression of the United States government apparatus' determination to treat strategic competition with China as the country's priority security challenge. Besides cultivating further hostilities, it will do substantial disservice to the ongoing efforts to inject stability into the already volatile bilateral relationship.

Building on the 2023 Security Assessment Report of the US Intelligence Community that was issued in February, the new document features a definitive focus on China and Russia as preeminent national security challenges, with the emphasis on China.

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Intelligence Strategy "is a foundational document" that is derived from a consensus among 18 intelligence elements and provides strategic direction for the US over the next four years.

Despite the "immediate and ongoing threat" Russia poses, "it lacks the across-the-spectrum capabilities of the PRC", the report states. It asserts that the People's Republic of China "is the only US competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do so".

Such a claim is consistent with other policy documents of the Joe Biden administration, reflecting a clear dedication to an all-of-government concentration on countering the alleged threats from China. Taken together, these policy documents point to a dangerous turn in the US' China strategy that threatens to fundamentally change the nature of the two countries' relations. Increasingly they are helping China hawks turn what has generally been a constructive and mutually beneficial partnership into a relationship dominated by animosity, which not only causes distress for the Chinese, but also many Americans.

The toxic effects have been obvious in the two sides' diplomatic rhetoric, which is getting less and less friendly as time goes by. Washington sounds tougher on China with each passing day, which is only serving to convince Beijing that it will be perceived as an enemy regardless of what it does to try and prove the contrary.

Even setting aside the "good old days" of engagement, it was not that long ago that the two governments were careful to show conspicuous restraint when commenting on emerging differences over issues of concern. That kind of restraint has evaporated though as the China hawks in Washington have stepped up their efforts to push bilateral ties toward a geopolitical showdown. More than ever before, the relationship looks like having embarked on a path of no return, a course of collision.

But, ironically, it is equally evident that neither party truly wants that collision to occur. Beijing continues reiterating its desire for a "healthy" relationship. The Biden administration keeps expressing a commitment to cooperate whenever, wherever possible.

The Jekyll and Hyde nature of the US administration in terms of what it says and what it does is the root cause of the problematic relationship between the two countries, with the latter encouraging the China hawks to go ever further in their provoking of Beijing.