The Russia-Ukraine conflict undermines the prospects for prosperity and security around the world — and that includes China, whose economic development recent years had depended upon a stable external strategic environment.

Fast-moving events are forcing the United States to adopt a more cooperative posture toward China, whose help it needs to meet the expectations of the international community. Cooperation has assumed increasing real-world importance.

The crisis in Ukraine grows worse as fighting rages on in what is sure to be one of this decade’s defining episodes. Whatever the outcome is, the result will drastically shift the landscape of the international community.

China’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine has been heavily scrutinized and criticized. While Chinese officials have expressed concern about civilian casualties, they have declined to condemn the attack, which they regard as a response to NATO expansion, and they have declared that they will not join the West in imposing financial sanctions on Russia. Yet China has hardly given full-throated support to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The question is whether this relatively neutral stance by China could prove crucial to preventing further dangerous military escalation.

History’s turning points are rarely evident with great clarity. But the February 4 joint statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as the Winter Olympics opened in Beijing may be an exception – signaling a new turning point in a new Cold War.

The winners and losers of the last year tell a story of turbulence and change in a year that saw the world make it through 12 more months of global pandemic and simmering geopolitical tensions, without resolving either issue.

During the Cold War, Europe was America’s strategic priority. East Asia was largely a sideshow, even though the United States fought bloody wars in Korea and Vietnam, and also provided security for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Americans like to think the United States won the Cold War and they nostalgically believe the same approach will work with China. It won’t. In fact, healthy China-U.S. relations depend on Washington’s moving away from the myth.

High-level dialogues in 2021 between China and the United State clarified their positions. Now it’s imperative that the two rivals avoid a new cold war by engaging in substantive working-level talks.

Two presidents take a stand against a new cold war in a virtual summit. The old friends sought to renew relations and move forward — accepting competition but shunning conflict. How to achieve that is the big question.