by Maya Majueran
The Asia-Pacific is increasingly at the center of the global economy, home to some of the world's most dynamic markets, manufacturing networks and technological ecosystems. How Beijing and Washington manage their differences and competition will therefore shape far more than their bilateral relationship. It will affect the prosperity, security and development of the broader region.
The economic reality is straightforward: China and the United States are the world's two largest economies, deeply embedded in an interconnected global system. Neither can sustainably prosper in complete isolation, and neither should assume that holding back the other's growth automatically guarantees its own.
Competition is inevitable. But competition does not have to become confrontation. The more productive approach is to strengthen domestic competitiveness while preserving space for trade, investment, dialogue and cooperation where interests align.
China and the United States experienced extraordinary economic expansion during decades in which their economies became increasingly interconnected. That history was not without disagreements or costs. But it also demonstrated that economic competition and mutual benefit can coexist.
The stakes are especially high in the Asia-Pacific, where economies are deeply connected. Growth in one major market can generate demand, investment and supply-chain opportunities elsewhere. Conversely, disruption between the world's two largest economies can transmit costs throughout the region.
Cooperation should therefore remain a foundation of the relationship. Competition needs boundaries, and disagreements must be managed before they become confrontation.
Countries across Southeast Asia and the Pacific want to trade with China, cooperate with the United States, and pursue relationships with both according to their own interests. Their future should not be reduced to a choice between Washington and Beijing.
But there is an even larger question: Where will the next generation of global growth come from?
For much of modern economic history, a disproportionate share of global wealth, capital, technology and consumption was concentrated in a relatively small group of advanced economies. That geography of prosperity is changing.
Across Asia, Africa, Latin America and other emerging regions, billions of people aspire to higher incomes, better infrastructure, greater industrial capacity and improved living standards. Their development will create new consumers, producers, investors and sources of innovation, expanding the global economic pie.
For China, the United States and other economies, this represents not simply a challenge but a major opportunity. A growing Global South will generate demand for technology, healthcare, energy, infrastructure, transport, financial services and advanced manufacturing.
Today, developing economies increasingly possess sophisticated technology, skilled workers, advanced manufacturing capacity and expanding consumer markets of their own. Affordability and technological capability are no longer necessarily opposites, while high-quality products and services are no longer confined to a small group of advanced economies.
This shift should encourage all major economies to improve their own competitiveness.
For the United States, for example, competitiveness cannot be built simply by restricting competitors. Tariffs and technological restrictions may serve particular policy objectives, but they cannot substitute for better infrastructure, stronger research institutions, more affordable housing, lower energy costs, higher productivity or greater innovation.
The same broader principle applies to every economy: Sustainable competitiveness comes from building, investing and innovating.
The objective should not be a race toward higher barriers, but higher productivity, greater innovation, lower structural costs and stronger living standards. This is why the Asia-Pacific and the wider Global South have a strong interest in a stable and open international economic environment.
The future of the global economy will not be determined by whether China and the United States compete. It will depend on how that competition is managed and whether there remains sufficient room for cooperation, economic exchange and development.
Neither country needs the other to fail in order to succeed. A more constructive path is for both to focus on strengthening their own economies while preserving the space for cooperation and growth that benefits the wider world.
Editor's note: Maya Majueran serves as the director of the Belt and Road Initiative Sri Lanka, an independent and pioneering organization with strong expertise in Belt and Road Initiative advice and support.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Xinhua News Agency.■
