Caspar Lant is a recent physics graduate from New York University, whose research interests include electron spectroscopy and improving air quality in global urban centers, a project he pursues at the NYU Shanghai Campus. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to China, but changed plans after the prestigious exchange program was canceled by the Trump administration.

This special explainer video is written and narrated for China-US Focus by Ambassador He Yafei, former Vice Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China. Taking a deep dive into the global challenges ahead of us, Ambassador He crafts his thoughts around geopolitics, the tech revolution, and the combination of traditional and non-traditional security threats. But he also provides solutions that will help us back away from the tipping point, by bringing humanity closer together through addressing the income and social gaps that divide us. Ambassador He also served as China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

Climate change may be the biggest threat to our survival, but it is also the major shared interest. China’s longtime climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua has been exchanging ideas with global actors including John Kerry and Ban Ki-moon.

In a wide-ranging appeal, former US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez says the US and China are not strategic rivals, but essential partners to global prosperity. He adds that commerce and investment should be allowed to flourish separate to politics and national security.

Human rights are important, but should not be leveraged as a way to lecture countries, says Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore’s former Ambassador to the United

President Biden brings multilateralism to his leadership — and will need to work with China on climate change, global health and denuclearization. But he can’t be seen to be “soft” on the next largest economy after its own.

The Pacific Dialogue features David Firestein, CEO and President of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations in Austin, Texas, and Da Wei, a professor at the Department of International Relations and senior fellow at the Center of International Strategy and Security at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Communities and countries continue to struggle in the current pandemic. But can we anticipate a new solidarity with a new American leadership — and a renewed dynamic in U.S. relations with China?