The new Pentagon strategy is a throw-back to Cold War thinking and contrary to the world view of America’s founding fathers. It may pose a new barrier to developing new major-power relations in a multi-polar world, unless all sides seek a cooperative approach.

The most fundamental driving force for the pact is the profound and deepening development toward a multipolar world. Economic globalization has closely integrated the interests of all countries, and the conception of a community of common destiny for all mankind has taken root, replacing the sort of unilateralism most recently practiced by the United States.

As the South China Sea’s most promising near-term developable gas field in the South China Sea, Sampaguita could offer a solution of cooperation, peace, and legitimacy to Chinese claims near the Philippines.

Given the accepted narrative of the space environment as congested, contested and competitive, the U.S. has been told to deter, defend and defeat Chinese challenges in space. This rhetoric wrongfully assumes challenge and elides preemption with prevention.

Though 34 African countries are signatories to the Rome Statute, the continent now generally sees the ICC as a political organ that has “deviated from its original purpose”, exercising double standards and “only targeting African countries for case investigation and conviction”. The US exempts itself but demands compliance from the rest of the world.

A changing world requires China to take a clearer, more comprehensive approach to its national security. It strikes a balance between maintaining national security and promoting socioeconomic development, between internal and external security, between the security of territory and people, between traditional security and non-traditional security, and between security of a single country and that of all countries.

The latest U.S. National Military Strategy has provoked a strong but misguided reaction in Beijing. U.S. policy makers are not forecasting an inevitable a war with China and identify areas where the two countries’ national security interests overlap sufficiently for bilateral collaboration.

Even an inconclusive agreement will benefit both countries, as US dominance of the global marketplace declines and makes remaining sanctions less workable.

The U.S. must accept that a major shift in the Asia-Pacific balance of power has already taken place, and minimize provocation. China’s South China Sea land reclamation isn’t necessarily forbidden in international law, as long as they aren’t used for offensive military purposes or to restrict trade.

Mutual trust has been slow to evolve on the political front, but that continues to be key for any meaningful deal.