The US will not change its Janus-faced policy of engagement and containment. But the fundamentals that buoy steadily developing China-US ties will not change, because they embody the fundamental needs of the development of both countries, and the trend of world history.

China now provides half of Pakistan’s military hardware and has demonstrated willingness to transfer technology to Pakistan. As geo-political alignments are changing, the mutuality of interests is drawing China and Pakistan closer.

In face of the historic opportunity offered by a changing international order, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the idea of developing ‘major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics’ to guide Chinese diplomacy in this age of big changes.

As large parts of Asia celebrate the arrival of the Lunar New Year on February 8th, it’s in with the Year of the Monkey. But before the Year of the Sheep fully recedes into memory, we take our annual look back at the people and events that made headlines across Asia—for good and for bad.

President Xi Jinping’s latest trip to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt point to the broader Chinese ambitions in the Middle East, a region where political turmoil and Russia’s military intervention in Syria are already altering the delicate balance of power. Only sustained pressure can persuade Beijing that its future lies in cooperation and not confrontation.

The China Dream and the China Model are complementary in Xi’s strategic vision, of which relations with the developing world are a central part. Developments in the Middle East and Africa show how large a factor China now is in economic globalization, but while the China Model is based on noninterference in politics, Mel Gurtov argues that separating economics from politics is a challenge.

"China is trying to be force for good in the world, not take sides, but just usher people together." Tung Chee Hwa, Chairman of the China-United State Exchange Foundation, speaks with Charlie Rose on China's economy, the country's leadership and its foreign policy objectives.

China “should not be absent”, the president said on his recent three-nation visit to the region. China sees development as a means for maintaining stability, and cooperation as a guarantee for security. The Belt and Road initiative is a vital tool for progress on all of these fronts.

Since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, China has been pursuing its own version of strategic rebalancing in foreign policy. China aims to re-position itself as “a state in the middle”, acting as a bridge among the developed and developing countries and maximizing the strategic space. If Chinese diplomacy and Beijing’s “connectivity” can ease the crisis in the Middle East, the achievement would affirm the nation’s rise to great-power status.

There are voices inside China as well as the US that urge Beijing to punish North Korea’s “bad behavior” more harshly. But China and the US interpret the very end and means of the situation differently, In China’s mind, the situation is more a US responsibility rather than China’s, and use of coercion as the dominant tool has been proved ineffective.