At this week’s APEC summit in Manila, President Barack Obama sharply criticized China for building artificial islands in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. But instead of calling out China, Obama should have taken the opportunity to reconsider Chinese President Xi Jinping’s proposal for a “new type of major-power relationship.”

The Obama administration was concerned when Xi first raised this concept in 2012 when he was still China’s vice president. Does that mean that China expects to share power equally with the United States? What signal would that send to U.S. allies?

In his 2013 meeting with Obama, Xi Jinping defined the “new type of major-power relationship” as “no confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation.” This proposition marks a break away from the zero-sum game mentality, and serves American interests as well as the interests of the world.

However, all Xi Jinping’s benevolent messages such as “win-win,” “shared future,” and “interdependence” are falling on deaf ears. Americans tend to view anything the Chinese say with suspicion, perhaps for good reason. China has repeatedly claimed that it will never pursue hegemony. Yet, the Communist Party itself is the hegemon within China. Beijing has a lot of work to do in order to convince the international community that it would behave differently on the world stage.

For the U.S., however, embracing the “new type of major-power relationship” does not diminish American leadership, nor does it mean that the U.S. needs to share power with China equally.

America’s closest ally, the United Kingdom, has engaged in a new type of relationship with China without worrying about what the U.S. thinks. The British now call themselves “China’s best partner in the West.” In an interview with CCTV, Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, said that the British government has made a deliberate decision not only to engage China but also to support the new international institutions that China is creating.

The U.K. was the first Western country to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), despite opposition from the U.S. Other U.S. allies, such as Germany and France, followed suit. Fifty countries, including Australia and South Korea, were present as founding members in June.

The British have sent a clear message that they will not follow the U.S.’s semi-containment policy on China. During Xi’s recent state visit, Downing Street discussed two important initiatives with Beijing that will have significant implications for geopolitics.

The first is the “London-Shanghai stock-connect.” The U.K. and China are jointly conducting a feasibility study to link their two stock exchanges. George Osborne, the British chancellor, has championed making London a dominant center for offshore Chinese currency trading. China will soon issue yuan-denominated bonds in London.

The yuan has already surpassed the euro as the second largest settlement currency. As the Chinese currency becomes more prominent, London is keen to facilitate the internationalization of the yuan — a potential challenge to the dollar-based global financial system.

The second initiative is a China-European Union free trade feasibility study. The backdrop of the China-EU free trade bloc is China’s new Silk Road project, billed as “One Belt, One Road.”

The new Silk Road entails investing billions of dollars in infrastructure and economic development across Eurasia, linking China to Europe. It comprises one route on land and one at sea, involving 60 countries along the way. If successful, the Silk Road could open up markets in Central Asia that are largely untapped, while shortening the distance between China and Europe.