As the two largest economies, China and the U.S. are trying to formulate a new-type of major-country relationship. The establishment of a free trade area should be an integral part of such relationship. This will be a challenging mission, but the rewards will be tremendous.

While the TPP is not attractive to several APEC economies because of its U.S. dominance, the proposed FTAAP, which embraces all of the 21 APEC economies, is meant to be an all-inclusive, all-win trade initiative that represents the largest single trade liberalization in history.

Jia Chunyang discusses the outstanding features of the U.S. National Security Strategy report. In general, the new report is a basic follow-up to the Obama administration’s opinions about China as well as its diplomatic philosophy reflected in its 2010 edition. But it has a more confident tone.

President Obama is very cautious in using military force. The transforming foreign policy strategy for the U.S. has been to share the cost of hegemony. For the United States, the main risk comes from the possibility of lacking confidence in U.S. strength among the allies and partners, but the strong leadership has reassured that the question is not whether the U.S. will lead, but how it will.

Not only do conflicts between U.S., China and Russia affect the world, their interdependence and occasional synergy also shapes world affairs. The U.S. and Russia still have an unstable relationship and could learn confidence building from the China-U.S. or China-Russia relationships.

A Sino-American joint military exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) to a typhoon-hit country was held in Haikou, Hainan Province. These cooperative exercises are still in the early phases; non-traditional threats such as counter-terrorism, peacekeeping and maritime security, are still institutionally, logistically, and legally lacking.

The National Security Strategy Reports outlined the U.S. interests in the world, and was more cautious than the 2010 report in addressing sensitive topics for China, stressing that cooperation is beneficial for its national security. The U.S. still views China as a rival, though, and should keep with the global trend of common interest rather than zero-sum.

Rather than focusing on military containment, Obama made it clear that economic competition is a priority of the U.S. It isn’t entirely negative if China and the U.S. increase economic competition, with economic interdependence dictating increased pressure for economic and technological advancement and cooperation.

The recent announcement by the Pentagon to pause the expansion of mil-to-mil exchanges with China hearkens to the anachronistic Cold War attitudes of creating and dehumanizing an enemy. China and the U.S. will likely have disagreements related to overlapping issues, but the need for cooperation on mutual global issues is necessary to avoid reckless encounters.

I have watched carefully the evolution of China's concept of a "New Type of Great Power Relationship." This has been a core element of President Xi Jinping's foreign policy towards the United States. I am a strong supporter of this concept.