Pei had always been proud of his Chinese ancestry. He also was committed to his American lineage.

Late last month at a security forum in Washington, DC, Kiron Skinner, Director of Policy Planning for the US Department of State, described today’s US-China conflict as “a fight with a really different civilization and a different ideology, and the United States hasn’t had that before.” As a trial balloon, this apparent attempt to define the Trump administration’s confrontation with China did not fly.

There are clear consequences to deteriorating quality and reciprocity in China-U.S. educational exchange. Lack of understanding of the differences between both political systems means that policy will be crafted based on outdated information.

A series of serendipitous interactions between Chinese and American ping-pong players helped thaw the ice between their two governments in the 1970s. The shocking success of “ping-pong diplomacy” shows the unexpectedly major role that can sports can play in bridging hostile divides and bringing together former foes on a common playing field.

Racing for the exit in bilateral exchange programs threatens to take out of circulation the trust and goodwill that have helped both China and the U.S. prosper and keep the peace in one of the most remarkable bilateral relationships in history.

Chinese and Vietnamese authorities are aware of the massive trade of poached animals. Both countries should ban the trafficking of animals from Africa, and launch a massive education campaign for consumers.

For billions of people, not just in China, but all over the world, toxic air pollution is a daily fact of life. To change this, we must address consumerist lifestyles, short-term values and profit-driven frameworks that have spurred climate change and created deadly environmental problems such as air pollution.

In both China and the United States, domestic violence is an enduring and ugly issue that lacks a fully effective public policy response for complex reasons.

The US has recently begun denying visas to Chinese scholars not just in sensitive high-tech areas, but in the social sciences and liberal arts. These moves not only threaten America’s reputation for open-minded exchange with the outside world—some China experts in the US fear that the FBI’s actions are a warning of even more aggressive and paranoid “decoupling” of US-China relations in the days to come.

In February, China’s State Council unveiled guidelines for developing the “Greater Bay Area” (GBA), covering nine cities around the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, plus Hong Kong and Macau. While the rest of the world remains mired in a seemingly interminable debate over how to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth, China is working to deliver it.