By initiating the AIIB, China demonstrates its willingness and capability to provide more public goods to the international community, writes Wu Zhenglong.

Obama has an opportunity to break from the past and make a brilliant mark in history by curtailing his administration’s pivot to Asia, writes George Koo.

As the United States takes action, diplomatically and militarily, in the Asian region, the US has been seen as attempting to contain China. Justin Logan assesses this claim, and introduces the idea that the United States is indeed acting to contain China not so much economically, but militarily.

On July 1, Abe’s government lifted a constitutional ban on collective self-defense. The US, initially indifferent to this development, later expressed its support, despite strong rhetoric condemning Japanese aggression and behavior during WWII. It is necessary for China to properly develop its relationship with the U.S. in order to prevent Japan from further deviating from a peaceful path.

While borrowing Chinese President Xi's hope that the United States would take into consideration the Chinese perspective when it comes to territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, Wang Dong criticizes widely spread US misperception and misunderstanding of China's foreign policy behavior, and argues that the absence of the Chinese perspective may have led to much of the misreading of China’s behavior.

The upcoming China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue provides the perfect opportunity for the United States and China to effectively and efficiently cooperate on various issues that concern both nations’ interests individually, as well as collectively. Additionally, Wu Zurong believes that the U.S. should use the forum to scale back its seemingly hardline stance against China.

As the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue takes place, Zhang Zhixin discusses the current status of China-U.S. relations. Zhixin characterizes the U.S. as acting antagonistically toward China and cites various instances. He also emphasizes the importance of acting to quickly alleviate recent tensions between the two powers at this year’s S&ED.

Tim Robbins’ recent rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Beijing attempted to relate to present-day waves of violence throughout the world by emphasizing a need for ‘the power of love’, but given the turmoil in Eastern Europe, Thailand, the Middle East, and in China’s maritime vicinity, the concept of ‘order’ might be a more necessary emphasis.

In light of President Obama’s commencement speech at West Point, Minxin Pei analyzes and discusses various facets of the talk. Specifically, Pei points to four themes in President Obama’s speech as particularly poignant, and spends the bulk of the essay discussing them.

Given recent territorial moves by China, as well as heightened aggressive rhetoric, Curtis Chin analyzes the parallels between China currently and Japan as it existed in the past. Additionally, Chin asserts that the world’s powers should work to lower tensions so that peace and prosperity can exist in the Asia-Pacific region.