<h1>Alliance realignment prompts partners to recalibrate ties with China as US leadership change alters strategic posture.</h1> Changing US leadership is prompting partners to reassess ties with China while sustaining mechanisms like the Quad and the Free and Open Indo Pacific. Economic levers - tariffs, investment, and market access - and resumed diplomatic and defense contacts are central to this recalibration, but territorial disputes and defense technology exclusions limit full rapprochement. Many states seek balanced engagement to preserve security partnerships with the US while hedging economically with China.