Commenting on Trump's history of deal making and unpredictability, Freeman said he believes Trump is capable of grand gestures, and is willing to take political risks in the interest of solving problems.

"We must hope that he will do so to calm Sino-American relations and put them back on a mutually beneficial track," Freeman said. "We should hope for the best but prepare for the worst."

Freeman, the chief US interpreter during president Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, said there "certainly" are areas or sectors where cooperation between China and the US is still viable.

But discovering these will require the two sides to re-engage and once again explore the respective interpretations of global and regional trends and events, he said.

"We each have enormous influence internationally, and we both recognize that our bilateral relationship can be either a force for problem-solving or a barrier to addressing issues of concern, not just to us but to all mankind.

"With the backing of our respective leaders, I am confident that we can yet muster the diplomatic skill to manage a rapprochement like that we began half a century ago," Freeman said.

While "stabilization" has been high on each government's agenda, the state of US-China relations is not static, with uncertainties and headwinds looming, other experts said.

"The most important source of stabilization has been the expansion of dialogue — official and unofficial — during the past 18 months. The two sides have a clearer sense of the other's intentions and the content of their policies, and the number of policy 'surprises' has dropped dramatically," said Scott Kennedy from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.