( CNN ) -- Back in 2007 , when I was participating at a conference on U.S.-China relations , the late U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke repeatedly came back to the importance of not writing the United States off , while warning against getting overexcited about the new emerging China imperium . `` The U.S. , '' he said , `` is not going away any time soon . '' Holbrooke 's views are evidently shared by the current leadership of China . While many commentators excitedly jabber about the end of the U.S. era and comment on how President Barack Obama -- diminished by his recent electoral drubbing at home -- is regarded as weak and irrelevant in Beijing , the people that matter , namely the Chinese leadership , have proved shrewd enough not to buy into this sort of talk . They see through the transient nature of presidents and their power , and as a strategic political and economic partner , understand that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was right : For them , the United States is the one indispensable nation . The proof of this is the comprehensive agreements issued this year during the APEC meeting in Beijing . Forget all the theater of Russian President Vladimir Putin scowling at Obama minutes before trying to engulf the Chinese President 's glamorous wife in a shawl , or the icy image of Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 's hand . Because the reality is that -- despite the narrative we might like to impose on all this of a world beating its tracks to Beijing 's door -- for policymakers in Beijing , deals like the one just made with the United States on slashing carbon emissions , or the ones on security and economic cooperation , are the one currency truly worth having . But the most misleading aspect of U.S.-China relations is that while in public they are frequently conducted in snarling rhetoric , underneath both sides probably have more mutual links and increasing common ground than ever before . And while separating the sound and fury from the truth is tough , on the fight against terrorism , the need to find sustainable economic growth , preserving a benign , stable international environment , and increasing predictability in the global financial governance system , China and the United States often pretend they are much further apart than they actually are . Their main business now is tactical -- trying to search out spaces for strategic advantage . With its proposed Asian Free Trade Zone , along with building diverse energy supply links through Russia and central Asia , China is engaged in staking out discrete spaces where it can move without being hedged in . It knows that long arguments with neighbors like Japan peg it down and reduce its space to act . Having as many friends as possible is Xi 's diplomatic priority , after years of brittle tensions with so many countries around China 's land and maritime borders . There is a simple reason for this . China is entering a period of tough economic transition . The Third and Fourth Plenum meetings of the Chinese Communist Party made this clear . Many things need to be done , from raising consumption to addressing water supply issues and the dangerous state of the air quality in the country . Too many rows with the world outside distract from the real business of dealing with these internal matters . And in all these areas , whatever the distrust and misunderstandings held by the world 's second biggest economy toward the largest , the gains from continuing to be constructive and mostly friendly , at least on the surface , far outweigh the benefits of acting tough . Of course , all this might change one day , when China really feels it has to demand more international strategic space and sees the United States as an impediment to that . But APEC this year has underscored that that day is a long time in the future .
Fear of the end of a U.S. era premature , says Kerry himself . China : Despite rhetoric , U.S. and China generally agree . China faces tough period of transition , he says .