China specialists

Ezra Vogel, emeritus professor of social sciences at Harvard University and author of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (2011), shared a similar concern.

"One of the problems now is that many of the best China specialists in the United States are not inside the government," Vogel said.

He said that both countries have undergone societal transitions, with disagreement generated in politics and economics.

"In some way, we are focusing on the wrong issue. The trade issue doesn't threaten US-China relations at all," he said.