The future and history of the world is being shaped increasingly by China and America. Going forward, all major global issues will intersect at the corner of Washington D.C. and Beijing. How our current leaders and future generations manage this relationship will not only impact the people of China and America; but all of humanity. As 2017 comes to an end and a new year begins, we will see how the Chinese leaders and millennials are poised to re-shape their — and our — world.

In China, it’s widely believed that the most important driving force for economic growth in the first quarter of century after the Cold War has been economic globalization. The world economy has expanded more than three times, lifting many people out of poverty.

On Sunday, China's fourth annual World Internet Conference commenced in scenic Wuzhen. The annual gathering is organized by the Cyberspace Administration of China to discuss internet policies and is primarily used as a platform to promote the internet under President Xi's notion of cyber sovereignty.

It seems that China’s leaders have now forsaken Deng Xiaoping’s advice to tao guang yang hui (“keep a low profile”). In declaring a “new era” for China during October’s 19th National Congress in Beijing, President Xi Jinping presented the Chinese system of governance as a model for other countries to emulate.

For a country seeking to promote its own development, enacting a successful long-term development plan is key, regardless of the economic system. Benefiting from its long-term plans, China is gradually growing into a global power.

Among different explanations of why President Xi launched his wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign, securing the ruling legitimacy of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is widely accepted as a major motivation. Interestingly, Xi’s popularity as the party’s leader and the government’s popularity has risen throughout the course of the campaign. Aside from the state-controlled propaganda, another hidden, but crucial, cause for the unmatched popularity of Xi among Chinese people lays in the Chinese culture of admiring upright officials.

Alibaba’s recent “Singles’ Day” extravaganza brought in $25.4 billion, cementing it as the world's biggest shopping event. The Singles’ Day splurge was triple the $5.9bn spent by U.S. shoppers across Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving last year. Why has the relatively new “Singles’ Day” grown to dwarf its American counterparts? The answer lies in China’s burgeoning e-commerce market.

Peng Liyuan has captured the hearts of the Chinese domestic audience as an artist and as a political figure. She is crucial to strengthening the positive image of the Chinese government. But China needs more than just another fashion icon. When conducted by a charismatic figure like Peng Liyuan, promoting female political participation would further elevate China’s soft power.

Chinese Americans are a largely untapped, the Center for American Progress estimates that in less than one generation, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters will constitute fully one-tenth of the electorate. That proportion will be large enough to sway elections.

Yan Xuetong, the father of the “Tsinghua School of Thought,” explains how Politics has defined China’s historical trajectory.