If Washington embraces cooperation instead of pursuing rivalry, all partners can harvest good results, and the US can still be a powerful partner. Why not do so?

By re-engaging with its neighbors, especially American allies, in a formal alliance system, China would set up the function of preventative cooperation. That would help to maintain regional peace and security.

China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative would create multiple economic corridors encompassing more than 60 countries Asia, North Africa and East Africa, linking the most dynamic East Asia Economic Zone with the advanced European Economic Zone. Intraregional free trade and infrastructure funding will enable more efficient circulation of currency and culture.

New agreements on collaboration in such areas as agriculture, grain production, civil aviation, high-speed railways, law enforcement, and military-to-military relations will further deepen interdependence. Xi’s visit has increased mutual confidence, reduced mutual suspicion, with achievements that made it a milestone in bilateral relations.

The gravest threat to American global leadership is neither Russia nor China but continued interest group-driven Congressional abandonment of the kind of balanced strategy that won the Cold War.

Whether the world’s nations can adjust to changes and to work with instead of working against the new arrivals on the world stage is going to be a major test. China has chosen to integrate itself into the international order, and has greatly benefited from being part of it, so China should be seen as a partner, not a competitor.

China invites the nations of the world to join in its strategy of opening up featuring mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. By opening doors wider and wider to the outside world, the environment for development will be more transparent, equitable, well-regulated, and predictable.

The term “Chimerica,” is liberal theorizing that assumes the more economically interdependent the U.S. and China become, the more peaceful the hegemonic transition of power will be. Realists theorize that there is ongoing comprehensive balancing, from trade to militarization, and free trade alone will not solve deep ideological and system differences. Improved relations require increased participation and less inequality on both sides of the Pacific.

In this premiere episode of a new Chinese Youku series produced by Guancha.cn, Shanghai scholar/entrepreneur Eric X. Li talks with political scientist Francis Fukuyama about his latest book: “Political Order and Political Decay.”

Ramses Amer compares the diplomatic views and policies of the U.S. with those of China to shed light on the future their interaction. Wide differences exist in their justification for the use of force in inter-state relations; an unlikely but cooperative solution would be for the U.S. to conform more to the UN Charter and principle of non-interference, as China has.