CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

Chen Jimin outlines four challenges facing the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda over the next four years. While the United States tends to view China as a direct competitor due to its rise in power, Jimin explains that other emerging economies will also challenge the United States’ status as a hegemon.

The Boao Forum for Asia in China serves to promote regional economic ties between China and its neighbors. Following this year’s conference, attendees hope the spirit of the Boao Forum will lead to greater cooperation amongst Asian nations.

The stronger the Sino-US bridge built for cooperation, the more peaceful the waters will be, and the more stable and prosperous the Asia-Pacific region will become, writes Zhao Weibin.

The Obama administration has responded to Chinese assertiveness by reinforcing U.S. military and diplomatic links to the Asia-Pacific, to much acclaim at home and in the region. But the “pivot” is based on a serious misreading of its target. China remains far weaker than the United States and is deeply insecure. To make Beijing more cooperative, Washington should work to assuage China’s anxieties, not exploit them.

David Shambaugh charts the course for U.S.-China relations and writes that the global importance of US-China relations means that this is a marriage in which divorce is not an option. The stakes are high. Yet the competitive trend is likely to continue into the future—absent a newly emergent global threat that challenges both nations to forge greater cooperation.

The US views China as a key to developing a peaceful, prosperous, and secure Asia-Pacific in the 21st century, therefore, building a healthy, stable, reliable, and continuous military-to-military relationship with China is of great significance.