China builds bridges while America builds walls. Both strategies are individually compatible. The danger arises when experts appraise each country’s strengths and weaknesses in the context of conflict thus precipitating the need for each to prove themselves in contests neither desire.
This is perhaps too optimistic a view of human nature. Apparently the ascendancy of one power is a challenge to the established power and often leads to war. If only they could see their shared problems, their shared struggles, they would have less excess energy to dissipate in hostile distractions.