The ability authors, musicians, and filmmakers have to tell stories can transcend geopolitics, but the current state of U.S.-China affairs offers almost nothing in terms of a meeting ground for the creatives of either side to exchange ideas. Repairing the cross-Pacific relationship will only get harder if big thinkers and storytellers cannot find a way to communicate.

In its pursuit for unipolar primacy, the Biden administration is risking the economic stability of China, the West, emerging Asia, and the futures of the Global South.

Pacific Island countries can benefit from both China and the United States, so their best choice is to cooperate with both. The new alignment will not disturb friendly relations between China and the islands.

The world is largely off track in terms of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But China’s Global Development Initiative and Belt and Road Initiative can work together for a better future.

The EU’s Global Gateway project is an answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and one that the EU hopes will provide a more liberal-led alternative to China’s investments. Whether or not a values-based approach to development will remain to be seen.

With the Winter Olympics bringing the world’s eyes to China, it seems that the stage is set for a major year of confrontation between rising China and the U.S., competing with rival benefit packages to draw third-parties away from their opponent.

The unfolding situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has caught the eyes of the international community, but the West making China and Russia the boogeymen behind the crisis is a thin facade for Eastern Europe’s own tribulations and apprehension to Western establishments.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi went to Africa, as is customary. But he also visited two Asian countries, a choice that signals China’s desire to break the U.S. attempt at containment.

The trip, in both its timing and content, was designed compete with China and expand American influence. Senegal, the U.S. Secretary of State’s last stop, happens to be the host country of the upcoming Eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Ministerial Conference. That’s no coincidence.

After moves by France, Germany and the Netherlands, the introduction of the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific should come as no surprised. Two questions emerge: Is this new version of the strategy a follow-up to the United States or an independent strategic consideration? And how should China respond?