Against a background of global economic gloominess, China’s Belt and Road Initiative injects a fresh spirit of multilateral cooperation and truly win-win opportunities. There is reason to expect a more vibrant regional and global economic recovery to be stimulated by this partnership initiated and led by Beijing.

The global economy now appears to be shaking off its deep post-crisis malaise, but the overhyped idea of a “new normal” for the world economy overlooks an extraordinary transformation in the global growth dynamic over the past nine years. It raises profound questions about the efficacy of monetary policy, development strategies, and the role of China.

The debate about “world order” and “China’s new leadership role” is attracting more attention especially when China has more loudly expressed support to the economic globalization and free-trade at a time when these ideas are under criticism in the Western world. Many in China who are also interested in the debate find the concepts behind these terms are not as clear as they may look.

Trump’s election campaign promises and and the executive orders the new president signed after he came into the White House reveal a narrow-minded, conservative and selfish United States. It’s a startling reversal of the country’s outlook for six decades, and completely outdated.

President Xi has expressed a desire to uphold and develop the world order. President Xi has expressed a desire to uphold and develop the world order. If Xi is up to the challenge and prevents a breakdown in global trade, China will have will have saved more than its own skin.

If the US wants to control the global value chain again, it should further open its market and integrate into the global value chain, rather than rely on the “return home” and “America First” policies to pull the chain apart. Only by restructuring the global value chain and by allowing the free movement of production factors can the world create new trade.

If you ignore the dragon, it will eat you. If you try to confront the dragon it will overpower you. If you ride the dragon, you will take advantage of its might and power.

Economic cooperation and trade frictions will probably simultaneously increase as the new American government’s “buy American and hire American” focus as it seeks greater economic benefits with its trading partners. But there are many areas where the interests of China and the US converge, which the leaders of both countries clearly appreciate.

The degree of monetary easing in the major economies is unprecedented and has nearly gone to the extreme, but risk preference and incremental capital gains are the key factors that determine capital flow. International policy coordination can prevent systemic risk from spreading in foreign exchange markets, credit markets and asset cost as well as cross-border capital flow.

However histrionic the demagogic oratory of President Trump has been, his strategy to revitalize American manufacturing will be better served by exporting more to China, not decreasing Chinese imports. China’s gigantic market has thus become the golden apple of discord in an accelerating geo-economic competition between the United States and Germany, which already enjoys significant production networks within the Middle Kingdom. Yet unlike the days of the Boxer Revolution and the alliance of eight Western nations, China can this time choose her major commercial partners.