China has announced that it will reduce tariffs on imported automobiles from a current rate of 25% to 15% from July 1st. Additionally, tariffs on imports of auto parts will also be reduced to 6% from the current range of 8% to 25%. This has been lauded as a response to U.S. trade complaints. But in reality this decision has been some time in coming, and does not represent a trade concession so much as an incremental opening of China's economy and a step by China's government to encourage continued consumption growth.

For much of the 20th century, the city of Duisburg in Germany’s industrial west was a steel-and-coal town whose chimneys cloaked the skies in smoke. And yet there is something about this soot-stained spot in the Ruhr valley that seems to encourage a particularly clear-sighted view of the rest of the world.

The BRI is not about physical routes in Eurasia. It is a global strategy. But the Belt and Road Initiative has been plagued by misconceptions ever since its unveiling. Most foreign observes have failed to grasp the complexity of the BRI, but the Chinese government also bears part of the blame, having failed to articulate a clear strategy from the beginning and building it up along the way.

For at least 60 other countries spanning across most of the world, however, the initiative is a tremendous opportunity to grow and develop their economies under a new global order — one that may not have the same strings attached to it as the U.S.-led system in power today.

The Pentagon is confused, and that is dangerous