By: Gayle Smith

During my time participating in the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Track 2 dialogue on development, I heard from many people in Africa and Southeast Asia about the difficulties of navigating the U.S.-China relationship. Among the more insightful comments shared with us were those of a woman with significant global policy and practical experience. She noted that with the United States and China in a "constant state of contestation," it was difficult to get anything done at the international level.  Her comments reinforced my view that in such an instance—with progress on a host of transnational threats and opportunities blocked by a very real struggle between the two major powers—finding a noncontroversial arena for cooperation is the best and perhaps only way forward.

I have had some experience with this. During the Obama administration, I served with the National Security Council during the Ebola epidemic. The president directed us to secure cooperation and support from as many countries as possible to contain and ultimately defeat the virus that was spreading rapidly across West Africa and, potentially, the rest of the world. China was among those countries. Despite our significant differences, China agreed to deliver the mobile labs that were needed to test for the virus in remote areas. The U.S. military off-loaded the labs from Chinese transport planes in Liberia.

In the midst of a trade war fueled by a fraught relationship, and given the dismantling of USAID, this report and its recommendations may be out of step for the moment, and it is true that sharp policy differences on development preclude the kind of cooperation that the United States has traditionally sought with European and other allies. Nevertheless, these recommendations are right for the future. Extreme poverty, instability, climate change, and viral threats are not national problems but global challenges. We may be able to address them incrementally as individual countries, but collective action is the only means by which we can tackle them at scale.

My hope is that at some point in the future, we might come to the realization that even with vast differences, there are small spaces where the United States and China could collaborate in pursuit of global development. It will not prove easy, and it is unlikely that there will be agreement on key policies and practices. But it is likely that somewhere, the two countries can achieve something as straightforward as delivering mobile labs to rural villages where a lethal virus runs amok.