As the new U.S. administration has undercut its commitments to multilateral institutions and challenged free trade orthodoxy, China has upgraded its image as a pillar of globalization and doubled down on its Belt and Road Initiative. Amid the ongoing uncertainty for the future of globalization, it is thus possible to understand China’s BRI as part of a formative “Silk Road system,” an emerging economic substructure – “Sino-centric” yet symbiotic to the U.S.-shaped Bretton Woods.

The global economy now appears to be shaking off its deep post-crisis malaise, but the overhyped idea of a “new normal” for the world economy overlooks an extraordinary transformation in the global growth dynamic over the past nine years. It raises profound questions about the efficacy of monetary policy, development strategies, and the role of China.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi agreed to a 100-day plan for discussions on reducing the US trade deficit with China. It seemed to recognize that a stable US-China relationship is necessary to enable them to focus on their respective challenges.

Integration, not isolation, is the key to sustainable development in a world bound ever closely together by information and transportation networks. While trade with the U.S. remains strong, a post-TPP world will require Chile to build bridges with TPP stakeholders and new partners, such as China.

Despite China’s struggle to identify new drivers of growth, there are many positive indicators in the economy right now. We should be more result-focused and open-minded about China’s economic pursuit, and be willing to see the positive side while weighing the country’s economic future.

With economic interdependence in the era of globalization, and determination by both sides to avoid the Thucydides Trap, it is debatable that the rising power will slide into an inevitable conflict with the established power. But China’s struggle to shift from a labor-intensive economy to one driven by technology and knowledge may make other “traps” irrelevant.

Trump’s election campaign promises and and the executive orders the new president signed after he came into the White House reveal a narrow-minded, conservative and selfish United States. It’s a startling reversal of the country’s outlook for six decades, and completely outdated.

It has been four years since One Belt, One Road (OBOR) was first announced, but the prospects of OBOR’s impact on Central Asia remain unclear, while the commitment of Beijing to invest $40 billion into Central Asia’s poor and deteriorating infrastructure have not materialized.The diversity of views on OBOR demonstrate that OBOR is far from being a complete product. It is an evolving concept, which is yet to be finalized. Accordingly, in the context of Central Asia, it remains unclear what form OBOR will take. Is OBOR a qualitatively new endeavour to be implemented in the region? Or, is it simply a rebranded form of Chinese pre-existing infrastructure projects, unified under the aegis of the Silk Road discourses?

Why has there been such a tidal change in the U.S.-Russia-China strategic triangle? The reason is simple: the United States and China are deeply enmeshed over a broad spectrum of politico-economic relations. Russia, on the other hand, is a straight forward strategic competitor and, within the international economic order, by and large a natural resource exporter.

2017 will likely be one of the most challenging years in decades for US companies in China.