Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a State visit to the US from Tuesday to Friday. This will be without doubt a major event in the history of US-China relations. Xi's visit will play an epoch-making role in the building of a new model of US-China relations in the post-financial crisis era.

But what should this model be? Even today, the US is still the largest economy in the world and China is second. According to many economists and observers, this relationship will be reversed within around one decade. Some say it will happen even sooner.

For example, the Economist magazine said in an article published last year that "We have plugged our expectations into the chart … as the default assumptions. Totting it all up, we now see 2021 as the year of China's re-emergence as world's biggest economy."

Competition between major powers is inevitable. And that includes the US-China relationship, which is even more complicated and will continue to be dominated by a competitive environment in more and more fields. But the competition will in general be friendly.

Actually, the word "friendly" is the one preferred by the Chinese government and media to describe China's foreign policy over more than six decades. I'd rather use the term "well-regulated" to describe the ideal and feasible US-China relationship, because, as we all know, so-called bilateral friendships are often too good to be true.

On the contrary, "well-regulated" is much more concrete in showing that different states have rules to respect and regulations to obey. That's what we need between the US and China, especially with the rise of China and the relative decline of the US.

Having accustomed themselves to a leading position on the planet that goes back to the end of the 19th century, when the UK was overtaken by the US in terms of GDP, Americans are now getting more and more nervous as they face China's rise. It is, in their eyes, challenging the US' position in Asia, the Asia-Pacific region and the world. 

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), drawn up by the US in haste, shows the US feels insecure. With several regional trade organizations already existing, the TPP is actually just a propaganda platform for the Obama administration to counterbalance China's rise and maintain the US position in this region.

And it is understandable for the US to misunderstand the "One Belt, One Road" policy, which it regards as a way for China to export the country's excess production capacity, or to misunderstand the creation of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which it believes is used by China to export the country's excess domestic capital. After all, the US has always been the rule maker for global economics and trade while China has been relatively passive. With China's rise in numerous fields, it is reasonable for China and other developing countries to wish to participate in the amendment to the existing international economic rules.

That is also exactly why China and the US need to build a new framework for bilateral economic and trade cooperation at the moment.

If we want to build a long-term stable US-China relationship, competition is natural and well-regulated competition is necessary. As a big emerging nation, China not only has the responsibility to propose reforming the existing international economic and financial system and participate in these reforms but also should clearly show to the international community it wishes to promote a multipolar world and work with the US to jointly take the responsibility to provide public services to the whole world. At the same time, the US should learn to share its dominance in international economic and financial affairs with other nations like China and work together with them to maintain the stability of the world economy. 

I'm convinced that Xi's visit will meet these major challenges, and that he will "design" with US President Barack Obama new rules that are pragmatic and sustainable between the US and China.

And Xi's visit will be an epoch-making event not only because the US and China are the first- and second-largest economies, respectively, in the world, but also because the new model of US-China relations will lay the groundwork for the future world, and will influence international patterns in the coming decades.  

The author is a Paris-based economist and vice-president of the China-France Association of Lawyers and Economists. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn