In the long sweep of history, China’s economic performance over the past 50 years will obviously stand out for the sheer scale and pace of quality-of-life improvements within that country. But China’s impact on the rest of the world has still been underappreciated.

China’s well-documented rise in prominence in the global supply chain has created an economic engine that now rivals the United States, but now facing stagnating growth, can China innovate into the 21st Century and drive into new territory?

China’s membership is not a threat. Rather, it is a sustainable framework for the United States to prosper. Both sides could well complement each other and grow together, benefiting our people and the world over.

As the United States marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence this summer, there is no better time to reckon with one of the great myths of American economic life: that the country’s prosperity was built on laissez-faire capitalism. From its very founding, the US has had a hybrid model in which the state directs, subsidizes, and occasionally bails out private enterprise in the service of national priorities. While the prevailing narrative has often extolled free markets, policymaking itself has been more pragmatic.

Future China-EU economic relations are likely to be defined by cooperation amid ongoing competition. Europe will need to choose when to emphasize industrial competitiveness and when to protect open markets. China should respond more proactively to European concerns over industrial development, employment and economic security.

Attempting to use “rebalancing” as an excuse for applying pressure on another country or for excluding a particular country from established rules can only exacerbate the rise of global protectionism and economic fragmentation.

Although small-scale rivalry and periodic tactical bargaining are likely to persist, a new equilibrium characterized by institutionalized cooperation—and occasional issue-specific divergence—may gradually emerge as the new normal in China-U.S. economic and trade relations.

A window of opportunity is open to prevent slipping into a pattern of entrenched strategic competition — which is why the question matters now. Relations between China and Europe are moving from an era of sectoral competition to an era in which competition embraces the entire economic ecosystem.

For the second consecutive year, ASEAN stakeholders prefer China over the United States as a strategic partner, driven by China's dominant economic presence, infrastructure investments, and growing trust. U.S. standing has eroded due to policy unpredictability under the Trump administration, climate withdrawal, and declining reliability as a partner.

The lingering energy shock is morphing from the Asian epicenter to a global economic drag. The U.S./Israel war imposes a fatal penalty on global growth.