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American democracy began as a great experiment, and with each generation there is a charge to reaffirm that bargain. Over the last year, the United States has been challenged by racial tensions, national disasters, a public health crisis, growing inequality, and increased political divisiveness. Thousands of Americans took to the streets in large-scale protests and riots across the country in response to the deaths of Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police. California faced record-breaking wildfires that created over $10 billion in property damage and burned more than 4 million acres. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a nation-wide shutdown, wide-scale unemployment, and massive economic loss. Disparities in U.S. education, already wide-ranging in quality, worsened with students from low-income households or from families impacted by the unemployment from the pandemic unable to keep up to date with virtual schooling. Xenophobia and racism led to an increasing number of physical assaults and attacks against Asian-Americans. All of this has worsened these internal divisions. Internationally, the United States faces a more complex global environment from the quick diffusion of technological innovation to transnational issues such as climate change and pandemics to the resurgence of great-power competition. China’s size, economic clout, global economic interdependence, and growing military exemplify this changing landscape. Over the last several months, the U.S.-China Futures Project pulled together the top minds from across industry, government, and academia to more holistically address six aspects of this complex relationship: biotechnology and global health, economic interdependence and supply chain complexities, military-civil fusion and defense competition, next-generation communications, technology governance, and geopolitical competition and international institutions. This report provides an initial summary of these discussions and recommendations in what will be an evolving challenge. The tools available to the Biden Administration and any future Administration to address this relationship and global challenges such as climate change will depend on the strength of the U.S. economy, social fabric, and military. The U.S. government and its citizens need to reaffirm their commitment and move the country closer to reaching the lofty ideals to which it aspires. America’s strong economy and military are built around open innovation and being the best place in the world to explore ideas and concepts, conduct novel research, and establish companies. From the Manhattan Project to the race to the moon to the Human Genome Project, the country has rallied around phenomenally difficult challenges by way of attracting and supporting the greatest minds in the world. The U.S. is also home to some of the world’s most innovative companies responsible for improving the lives of all global citizens. These companies rapidly design, build, test, and learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others, while keeping their eye on the horizon. Systemic inequality, rising xenophobia and nationalism, and state-led industrial policies, technology theft, and censorship threaten U.S. openness and innovative competitiveness. In the era of great power competition, the United States needs to enable the full innovative potential of all its citizens and strengthen its attractiveness to the world's best and brightest. Simultaneously, the U.S. government needs to work with its universities and private sector to address the growing technology theft, espionage, and propaganda and censorship risks that undermine the open nature of U.S. innovation and thought leadership. The United States needs to strengthen these advantages going forward to remain competitive and prepared to address the challenges in the decades ahead.