Centuries of Western dominance are now fading as developing countries emerge onto the world stage. Despite military and fiscal crises, major powers have great opportunities. They must seize this moment of flux to build upon the accomplishments of the past 100 years, to reform global governance and the rules-based international system, rather than letting impulsive unilateralism lead them to miss the chance for win-win cooperation.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is putting forward an alternative vision of global economic development to help developing countries escape poverty, and help developed countries head off inequality and populist challenges. But the US seems poised to squander its chance to participate and thereby shape this future of infrastructure, inclusivity, and innovation.

Wu Xinbo talks history and globalization.

Given the U.S. has identified China as a main rivalry, the two nations can still cooperate. But it is unrealistic to expect China to make concessions and “take a hit.”

The relationship with the U.S. has been an important factor for China’s success in the last 40 years in its reform and opening-up effort to integrate into the global system.

As the US is rejecting globalization, China is stepping up to help save it.

China’s foreign business policy was carried out in a double track strategy: embracing globalization, while enhancing protectionism. This was key in order to develop China’s strength in certain industries— especially those that are already well-developed in western countries— in a less-competitive environment.

World order is changing fast. China and the US need to forge a closer relationship that will serve as a solid anchor for a world buffeted by strong winds and hail.

Despite changing attitudes toward globalization in many parts of the world, shared interests, shared destiny and “one world one dream” continues to be China’s lofty ideal to build a “community of nations with shared destiny” with all nations in the world.

Several Chinese friends have sympathetically said that I am “too Americanized,” as if I have betrayed my own culture. But I am definitely not American, and I have no desire to become one. My mindset hasn’t shifted to a nationalist one, nor have I joined the “China-bashing club,” while I’m certainly critical about all its faults. Watching China from afar, I’ve gained a much clearer view of its problems than when I was on the ground covering and living through them.