The optics of this week’s summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping were carefully staged to signal parity between the United States and China. Trump, the first US president to visit mainland China in nearly a decade, was accompanied by an entourage of American CEOs—including Tesla’s Elon Musk (with his son X), Apple’s Tim Cook, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang—whose businesses rely on maintaining good relations with the People’s Republic. They were duly given a grand welcome in the Great Hall of the People.

The U.S./Iran-linked energy crisis has shifted from a commodity shock to structural geopolitics, with Asia at the epicenter due to its dependence on imported oil and LNG. Global reverberations can no longer be avoided.

The announcement by the United Arab Emirates that it would withdraw from OPEC has drawn intense international attention. Should conditions in the Strait of Hormuz improve, the UAE would be well positioned to rapidly expand its share of the global oil market.

The Strait of Hormuz crisis is driving a new era of geoeconomics shaped by national security, trade disruption, and coercive power. The resulting energy shock is accelerating the global shift toward green energy and increasing China’s influence in the emerging economic order.

The European Union’s China policy is trapped in a glaring contradiction. Officially, Brussels frames China as a “partner, competitor and systemic rival.” In practice, however, the rivalry narrative has overridden all other dimensions and eroding the foundation of cooperation.

Trump’s tariffs failed to reshore manufacturing or reduce trade deficits, instead weakening U.S. alliances and strengthening China’s global position. They accelerated a shift in power toward control of supply chains and critical materials—an area where China holds a decisive advantage.

A global energy crisis has created an opportunity for the Philippines and China to improve relations through increased diplomatic engagement, expanded economic cooperation, and renewed focus on energy security despite ongoing maritime disputes. China’s ability to supply fuel, invest in infrastructure, and support renewable energy development positions it as a key partner in strengthening the Philippines’ energy resilience and economic stability.

China manifests a striking paradox. It is among the world’s most dynamic technological powers, producing breakthroughs in AI, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing at an accelerating pace, yet economic growth continues to slow. The reason is no mystery. As the government’s latest Five-Year Plan (2026-30) recognizes, China is experiencing a structural transition, not a cyclical slowdown. The old model is giving way to a new one, which has yet to take hold.

Every new restriction on trade between the United States and China is supposed to pull the two economies apart—or so we are told. But the global economy refuses to cooperate with the conventional wisdom. In fact, each round of tariffs, export controls, and investment screening has been accompanied by more of the investments that cement the Sino-American economic relationship. Until policymakers recognize this paradox, talk of “decoupling” will describe a world that does not exist.

As missiles, bombs, and drones fly across the Persian Gulf, the prospects of an even more devastating war in the Pacific are strengthening. De-escalation of the new cold war between the United States and China must now become the world’s top priority. To that end, it is essential to explode a powerful myth that makes war more likely: the idea that China has cheated its way to prosperity.