Editor's Note: The symposium on the Future of China-US Relations was conducted by China Daily's Opinion Channel, the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese Association of American Studies on Thursday. Several experts from both China and the United States shared their views on the theme. Below are excerpts of their speeches.

Cooperation is the 'why not' moment for China and US

By Siddharth Chatterjee

We face five defining challenges unprecedented in the post-war era.

First, the pandemic has laid bare the fragility of human health and the global systems meant to protect it. Second, we confront a triple planetary crisis: accelerating climate change, catastrophic biodiversity loss, and air pollution. Third, around 80 conflicts are burning across the world simultaneously. Fourth, over 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. Fifth, inequality — digital, economic, and in quality of life — continues to widen, fracturing societies from within.

Yet beneath these crises lies a profound shared truth. A mother in Beijing, Washington, Nairobi, or Denmark holds the same aspirations for her children: better education, adequate nutrition, and a future worth striving for.

For the first time since World War II, over 170 million people have been forcibly displaced — uprooted by conflict, climate breakdown, poor governance, poverty, and despair. Having dedicated three decades to the United Nations, I am more convinced than ever that this moment demands not retreat into rivalry, but a bold convergence of purpose. The Global Development Initiative presents exactly that opportunity — a platform for companies and governments from the United States, China, and Europe to come together and catalyze transformation across Africa and beyond.

The potential is boundless, constrained only by imagination. Consider a powerful historical precedent: during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, despite their enmity, both contributed to global efforts that eradicated smallpox. If scientists from the US, China, Germany, India, and Russia can work in concert today, there is no reason we could not develop vaccines capable of preventing the next pandemic before it begins.

The Sino-American relationship remains the single most consequential bilateral relationship of the 21st century. It carries within it the capacity to address global challenges that touch every human life on earth. I say this not as an American, not as a Chinese citizen, but as a global citizen shaped by thirty years of frontline multilateral service in the United Nations.

The architecture for cooperation already exists. If the US and China were to align the Build Back Better framework with China's Global Development Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative — two ambitious visions with more common ground than either side cares to admit — the transformative potential would be extraordinary.

So why not?

Why not see these parallel ambitions converge into a shared project for humanity? George Bernard Shaw put it best: Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.

This is that "why not" moment — for China, for the United States, and for the world.

Siddharth Chatterjee is the CEO of Global Neighbours, former United Nations Resident Coordinator in China and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.