Positive signs have emerged in recent days indicating that neither China nor the United States wants to see the worsening of their relations continue unchecked.

In their meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday, the defense ministers from the two sides expressed the common wish to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries.

And on Monday, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had talks in Luxembourg lasting almost five hours that the Chinese side said were "candid, in-depth, and constructive" and the White House described as "candid, substantive, and productive".

Yang told Sullivan that China highly values the US administration reiterating that it does not seek to start a new Cold War, change China's regime, counter China through strengthening its alliances, or support "Taiwan independence", and it does not seek conflict with China.

However, the key to consolidating this nascent rapport is the US matching its words with deeds.

What the world has observed is the US doing exactly the opposite. It is not only committed to building anti-China cliques around the world to squeeze China's development space, but has also resorted to various means to push the envelope on its commitment to the one-China principle at the risk of emboldening Taiwan secessionists to cross Beijing's redline.

The US administration has also repeatedly slurred the integrity of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese political system, and painstakingly fabricated, spread and speculated on rumors of "genocides" and "forced labor" in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, all the while ceaselessly flexing the US' military muscles on China's doorsteps and seeking to form cliques with the aim of excluding China from as much of the international community as it can.

Saying one thing and doing another weakens the US' credibility, and has created a situation in which the more honey-mouthed the US administration is the more difficulties it tries to create for China, presumably to appease the China hawks in Congress.

It is the view of these stalwarts of the maximum pressure campaign against China that the US gains when China loses. But this has proved to be a costly misjudgment that harms the interests of the whole world, as a defining characteristic of today's era is that both gains and losses happen in a collective way.

That is why China, always bearing the bigger picture in mind, has exercised considerable restraint in its countermeasures to the US' maximum-pressure containment moves. And it is thanks to that restraint that trade between the two countries surged 10.1 percent over the first five months of this year.

Matching cordial words with deeds is the foundation of good relations and the prerequisite for the US to put relations with China back on the right track.