Despite the election-year rhetoric in the US, free-trade has been good for both countries and their people, and China and the US should both fight protectionism and support less-restricted trade to lead the global economy back to a path of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.

Despite all the hand-wringing over the vaunted China slowdown, the Chinese economy remains the single largest contributor to world GDP growth. For a global economy limping along at stall speed – and most likely unable to withstand a significant shock without toppling into renewed recession – that contribution is all the more important.

The world’s two largest economies must lead globalization onto a track of fast progress, to further accentuate “development”, placing more emphasis on “the politics of distribution”, rather than on “the politics of production”.

U.S. President Barack Obama will urge leaders of the world's major economies to use fiscal policy and other tools to boost growth while paying more attention to angry citizens who feel left behind, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday.

Chinese concepts and wisdom about “win-win cooperation”, “new type of major-country relationship”, “community of common destiny of all mankind” and “new security concept” will surely contribute to the G20 in the development of solidarity and a partnership spirit.

As China assumes G20 leadership, the prospect of global “protectionism” is on the rise and the stakes could not be higher for cooperation and major structural reforms. Without continued investment and trade, secular stagnation in advanced economies and growth deceleration in emerging economies will continue to broaden.

The US should follow the historical trend of trade liberalization, abandon protectionism, and engage in non-discriminatory free trade. That is the only winning formula for its own and the rest of the world’s economic difficulties.

The tool of negative interest rates has not worked, but has spread to dangerous levels. If the current global crisis bailout methods are not fundamentally reformed, and the old policy options continue to be applied, the possibility of another global crisis in the future can not be ruled out.

The G20 Summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping will help alleviate current problems in a troubled world and become yet another milestone of a rising China. Despite US fickleness toward emerging countries, the summit may usher in a new era of global governance in which China will emerge as a leader with the world’s major powers, old and new, working together for common benefit.

Despite challenging times, by embracing innovation the Hangzhou G20 Summit will help bring about sustainable, strong and balanced global growth and chart a new direction for world economic development, namely, towards an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy.