Maybe "friendly" in the sense that both sides were deliberately ignoring the things they didn't like about the other in the interest of keeping global business

Maybe "friendly" in the sense that both sides were deliberately ignoring the things they didn't like about the other in the interest of keeping global business chugging along. But not actually friendly. Part of the reason things heated up so quickly is that there was a lot of stored propaganda ammo to use. For example, US condemnation of China's human rights violations dates back decades, and only got swept under the carpet by Clinton in the interest of pumping economic ties instead of continuing trade sanctions [1]. [1] https://www.heritage.org/report/the-collapse-clintons-china-policy-undoing-the-damage-the-mfn-debate https://www.heritage.org/report/the-collapse-clintons-china-...