US VP Vance says we want to have a positive relationship with China, adds we also recognise that China is a competitor, according to Fox News

Remarks of this kind, pairing warm relationship language with competitor framing, are standard formulation from this administration and carry no new policy content on their own. The pattern through prior episodes of US-China engagement has been that rhetorical temperature moves sentiment in tariff-sensitive names, agriculture, semis, China-exposed industrials, only briefly; durable repricing has required concrete instruments, tariff schedules, export controls, entity list additions, or a scheduled leaders meeting with a deliverable. The tell that distinguishes signal from boilerplate is whether the language is paired with an action or a date: a named negotiation round, a Commerce or USTR process, a purchase commitment. Absent that, comparable comments have tended to fade within the session. What is worth watching is whether the framing is echoed or hardened by principals with actual trade authority, since the VP is not the operational channel on this file. As headlines go, this is tone-setting rather than event risk.