The two countries are not rushing toward collision but thriving on forward-moving, parallel tracks. That’s been the record for more than 30 years, despite fretful narratives of potential conflict.

With its thriving economy, accelerating integration and evolving challenges to the security environment, ASEAN is destined to become an increasingly important region of the world. Its population is bigger than the combined population of the U.S. and Japan, and it represents a major frontier market.

For Southeast and East Asia to have a favorable architecture, wherein all nations could aspire to common development and prosperity, it is necessary for both the U.S. and China to work closely with each other and with ASEAN.

For many years, United States military airplanes and ships have conducted close-in surveillance operations on China. Recently, with a more ostentatious move, a U.S. Navy vessel sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Zhongjian Island in China’s Xisha Archipelago in violation of Chinese sovereignty. The U.S. claimed that they will continue the practice in the future.

Hawks today see the U.S. as withdrawn, docile, and weak by choice. They see China as aggressively violating norms and threatening American leadership. Yet any action would wrongfully assume the differing Chinese expectations of honor, history, and geography.

The U.S. push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership undercut the potential for closer China-Japan ties that might have unbalanced trilateral relations. Policy moves in China or Japan will affect ties among all three countries, which must approach their relationships in a balanced manner for regional and global stability and development.

Wang Yi is in Washington for his first US visit of the year. He earlier held talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, with the South China Sea and the Korean Peninsula at the top of the agenda.

While the world’s attention has been focused on North Korea’s recent nuclear test and satellite launch, important developments regarding the nuclear issue were also taking place in South Korea. Recent developments suggest that the patience of the South Korean people and some members of the political elite is wearing thin.

ASEAN should not be divided by TPP, and two competing economic blocs should be avoided. China and the US must understand ASEAN’s hopes and fears of the two giants, and pursue trilateral cooperation with ASEAN in various fields, especially non-sensitive issues such as clean energy, illegal fishing, HADR, human and drug trafficking, and disease prevention.

Chinese initiatives like “One Belt, One Road” are intentionally open and flexible; no uniform rules or norms are set from the beginning. One of the major challenges for the EU and European countries in the cooperation with China stems from this openness or vagueness, and from doubts about rules that might be applied differently in global and regional contexts.