In his 2015 State of the Union, President Obama repeatedly mentioned China, made forceful proposals to improve the economy for the middle-class, and warned against any attempt to repeal his signature legislation and executive actions.

President Obama’s sixth State of the Union (SOTU) address was heavy on domestic policy and light on foreign policy. The president did not talk much about recent progress in the US-Chinese relations. Instead, he focused on the urgency to complete the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement – without China. There is a reason to the omission and the focus: the Obama White House is increasingly concerned over its legacy.

By not emphasizing security differences with Beijing, President Barack Obama’s State-of-the-Union address made evident his general satisfaction with the success of his China policies.

The “Pivot to Asia” policy has been primarily driven by cold war and military conceptions of containing China’s rise. President Obama’s recent State of the Union speech kept with a distinctly American theme of soft-imperialism with mention of “writing the rules” to free trade agreements in Asia, instead of acknowledging China’s own sovereignty.

It is my hope that the Obama administration will leave a satisfactory legacy in promoting US-China relations by enhancing mutual strategic trust and pragmatic cooperation between the two nations.

Chen Xiangyang provides an overview of the major international power conflicts during 2014, a year marked by “flux” and “reconfiguration.” Western countries will find it hard to dominate international order, institutions, and rules due to the collective emergence of new powers, mostly in Asia.

The KMT and the DPP will soon unveil candidates for the top executive job in Taiwan, and politics will revolve around the 2016 election. Both Beijing and Washington are hoping that the people of Taiwan will elect a leader that supports stable cross-strait relations and peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.

Cui Liru describes a transforming international picture of national power relations, one that is moving toward a multipolar world of influence. In order to avoid the possibilities or true confrontation, China must more clearly realize what it wants to achieve in the world, and also needs to imagine what a peaceful coexistence with the U.S. would look like.

Chen Yonglong explains the six “normal” states of interaction that will define the China-U.S. relationship: in redefining shared global power; in how leaders conduct dialogue; in economics; in strategic contention of hegemony and ideology; in their efforts to control dispute; and finally in their cycles of balance and rebalance.

In the two and a half years since Beijing raised the concept of building a “new model of major-country relations,” the U.S. has made statements that it doesn’t completely subscribe. However, as Yu Sui explains, these concerns are out of fear of a unilateral U.S. concession to Chinese demands, rather than an understanding of the mutual benefits at stake.