This Monday, the Chinese government released blueprints to connect the economies and infrastructure of the Greater Bay Area, which includes the semiautonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau and 9 other Guangzhou cities— one of which is Shenzhen, home to Huawei and Tencent. The goal is to create a cluster of cities concentrated in innovation and technology that could rival places like Silicon Valley or New York by 2035.

Despite the pause in the US-China trade war, the US and China are strategic competitors, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. China realizes that there is little room to settle long-term disputes and, as a result has shifted towards a strategy that focuses on sustaining growth at any cost, expanding alliances, and advancing its technology.

As China’s engagement in Africa increases, critics raise questions about loan terms, as well as its impact on governance and business standards. Still, Chinese analysts and policymakers argue that China will provide much needed development for the continent: a pathway to stability and improved quality of life.

A Chinese mine in Morococha. Peru brings into focus some of the challenges that come with China’s vision of expanding its global investments.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has come under fire for its white elephant projects – ‘never-to-be-recovered’ infrastructure projects that provide little value to recipient states. Rather, infrastructure investments have to be focused on quality and impact rather than mere quantity and volume – otherwise, the impacts of such investments will be marginal.

China must perform a difficult balancing act.

Though China forged a new economic relationship with Venezuela under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, the PRC’s continued presence is almost guaranteed through the need for Venezuelan oil.

The Chinese economy is still going strong, though some changes are in order.

The third round of US-China trade talks were "productive," according to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, although no clear resolution has been made to end the protracted trade war. The most recent trade talks, which concluded in Beijing this Friday, resulted in pledges to increase purchases of US goods, including $200 billion of US semiconductors over six years, but made questionable headway on 'structural issues' long contested by US lawmakers, which include "forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, cyber theft, agriculture, services, non-tariff barriers, and currency," according to the White House.

Under President Obama, the US-China relationship was viewed as critical and treated with care. Now, under President Trump, China hawks dominate US foreign policy. How did we get there, and what will it mean for “the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century”?