Just five days before the Chinese New Year, the authorities in Beijing finally declared the coronavirus epidemic that originated in Wuhan to be a major public health emergency.

It is not the end of the world. The plague will soon pass, and when it does, supply chains will reconnect, production will resume and everything will return to normal.

China’s rich trove of ancient wisdom expands the imagination about global governance. Its perspective deserves a place at the table. After asking what our current world is, we must not forget to ask ourselves what the future world could be.

Washington must be careful in assessing the possible impacts of the novel coronavirus outbreak -- particularly in the implemenation of the phase one trade deal. The U.S. needs to give China a certain degree of flexibility.

Made-In-China 2025 is China’s controversial agenda that could propel it to be the world’s leading nation in manufacturing. While the plan was formally withdrawn after receiving US backlash, Beijing may still be operating along that plan—just less transparently.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was set to become the world’s largest free trade agreement. But India’s withdrawal from it has thrown the negotiated trade bloc into imbalance and has underscored India’s qualms with China’s trade practices.

United States stretches reason past the breaking point as it applies pressure to the company. Britain is adopting the technology anyway, while Meng Wanzhou’s rights continue to be violated in Canada.

The road to trade peace is treacherous, especially since most of the obligations under phase one are one-sided and place China at a disadvantage. But tariffs are becoming less useful as leverage for the United States in the face of Chinese economic resilience.

Five years in the making, China’s new Foreign Investment Law has finally been put into effect. The ambiguous language of the law will prove beneficial to Chinese manufacturing as manufacturers that have recently experienced losses are given free rein to ameliorate their suffering industries.

While the Trump administration has been quick to celebrate the recently-signed Phase One trade deal between the US and China, the deal is not progress for Sino-US relations. Instead, the limited agreement simply secures US affirmation of Chinese plans that were already underway.