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.

Trump’s trip to China signals the start of a new trade relationship, anchored in good economic fundamentals that are solid, stable and sustainable. Both countries stand to benefit, as does the rest of the world in terms of peace and prosperity.

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.