In October 2013, during a visit to Indonesia, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the launching of the New 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, just one month after announcing the New Silk Road Economic Belt, while on a visit to Kazakhstan. These two initiatives, followed in 2014 by the plan to put together the BRICS New Development Bank and China’s establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that Fall, constitute a new paradigm for mankind.

The “One Belt and One Road” initiative concerns 65 countries and 4.4 billion people and is China’s most important and strategic initiative. As the Middle East and Europe faces social, political, and economic turbulence, China invites all major economies to join this endeavor to improve infrastructure and trade throughout the world. Increasingly, China’s development is inseparable from the world; and world’s stability and prosperity are inseparable from China.

Economic and security structures in the Asia-Pacific region have shown a trend of changes towards the “dual-track structure” between U.S.-led allies and Chinese-led allies. It is imperative for China and the U.S. to optimize strengthen their complementary features, rather than maintain a bipolar and competitive nature, so as to ensure development and security in the Asia-Pacific region. Zhai Kun provides four suggestions to achieve this.

The Third Session of the 12th National People’s Congress delivered a “Report on the Work of the Government.” Notable advancement was made in conducting economic diplomacy with the Silk Road Economic Belt, 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and Silk Road Fund. More significant openness to the outside world and expanded economic diplomacy are priorities of diplomatic work in 2015.

Abe must understand – and the U.S. should exert pressure on him – that the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II is prime time for him to profoundly reflect on Japan’s wartime crimes. If Abe goes too far in the wrong direction, there will be no peace in the Asia-Pacific and the hard-won beginning of a Sino-Japanese détente may vanish.

Since normalization of relations in 1979, US-China relations have been characterized by a mixture of cooperation and conflict. Up until a few years ago, it was clear that “cooperation” was the hallmark, the most important part, of the relationship.

Britain has broken ranks with the United States to join China in the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). As other nations like Australia and South Korea choose to similarly defy U.S. opposition to the AIIB, and join, it could shake Japan’s confidence in its own position and even in the reliability of its alliance with the U.S.

The current international situation is rife with change, uncertainty and crisis in the Middle East, Asian Pacific, and Europe, largely due to shifting world power. Chen Xiangyang overviews changes and contradictions around the globe from a realist perspective on power relations.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently presided over a discussion on international security at the UN in New York. The principle of unity and multilateral cooperation, the basis of the original UN Charter, was the foreground to China’s continued calls for cooperation on investments, terrorism, and military trust mechanisms.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the WWII in the Pacific, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe plans to make a statement of apology, which is already drawing concerns from the international community. Abe’s denials and changes to historical accounts mean that an “Abe Statement” could turn out to be a declaration on Abe’s “proactive pacifism” rather than a statement on Japan’s remorse and apology.