The future of the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy remains fluid. However, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s two visits to the region, including his recent attendance and speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, shed a little light.

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s hyping the notion of an alleged China threat will continue to promote negative perceptions within American society. It caters to the mentality of some special interests that stand to gain from China-U.S. competition.

Hyping the China threat only incites fear. Beware of political opportunism and profiteering when a media outlet starts banging the drums for war.

U.S. strategy seeks to keep other countries permanently subordinate and backward, while many — including China and Russia — aspire to an equitable and just world order with peaceful development.

U.S. President Donald Trump has suffered a decisive loss in his trade war with China. It is now in the interest of both countries to speedily resume trade and investment cooperation, cooperate to end the COVID-19 threat and implement the Paris climate accord.

America has been grossly interfering with economic cooperation in the region, attempting to reinforce a false perception that Beijing poses a threat.

This is no ordinary time in US-China relations. While President Trump lacks consistency, predictability, factuality on many areas in the US-China relationship, there is still a major lack of reciprocity in the US-China trade relationship. Even so, there still exists a viable pathway to a US-China relationship that is mutually beneficial and politically sustainable.

Globalization has brought a new set of international issues to the table. A neutral voice of moderation that understands the world’s challenges should emerge to avoid decoupling or disaster.

Many observers believe the US has already begun a new cold war via comprehensive containment of China. But in recent decades, US elites have debated back and forth on the positive or negative implications of Chinese power. Today’s tensions are serious, but not unprecedented.

Amid growing U.S. concerns over Chinese espionage, Chinese students studying in the U.S. find themselves caught in the middle.