As the anniversary of President Nixon’s secret trip to China in February 1972 approaches, it’s critical to recall the dramatic changes that occurred between China, the United States, and the world.

The positive turn initiated by Richard Nixon 50 years ago seems to have ground to a halt. The China-U.S. relationship has hit a low point. But while America has come to regard China as its primary strategic competitor, there are ways to get back on track.

Past experience is a guide for the future, so what can we learn today from the normalization of China-U.S. relations? First, we must be realistic. Second, we must be willing to break conventional rules.

China is interwoven with the American economy and far more open and free than it was in 1972. If ideology did not prevent normalization when Nixon broke the ice, it should certainly not impede bilateral relations today.

In the age of globalization, foreign policy sways our daily life more than people could imagine. A trade war leads to soaring price of consumer goods, which means you have to pay more for groceries, and sanctions on solar panels could mean more greenhouse gas emission, which creates greater peril of climate change. Disturbingly, Washington’s current China policy, a policy that could mean the difference between war and peace, prosperity and destitution, is based on some seriously misleading claims.

India is stepping up to seek out stronger relationships with Southeast Asian countries, showing that China is not the only nation in the Pacific region that can provide boons and benefits to friendly partners.

There is no need for China to overreact to the latest strategy report, but it needs to be prepared for pressure from the United States, which will likely focus on the Indo-Pacific region for decades to come.

With the Winter Olympics bringing the world’s eyes to China, it seems that the stage is set for a major year of confrontation between rising China and the U.S., competing with rival benefit packages to draw third-parties away from their opponent.

The strategic benefit for China and Russia to maintain good relations has never been more apparent. A successful Sino-Russian foreign policy push in Ukraine and Taiwan would certainly shock the U.S. and Europe.

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework proposed by the United States should blend with existing regional free trade arrangements, which are already well-developed. A quick look at the numbers shows there’s no advantage to leaving out Asia’s trade behemoth.