Coordination, Cooperation and Stability
Zheng Zeguang
I. China and the US both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, a lesson from history of their bilateral relations. The right way for the two countries to get along with each other lies in mutual respect and seeking common ground while putting aside differences. The US should stop saying and doing negative things, and work with China to bring bilateral relations back to the right track.
The China-US relationship is at a crossroads and facing a severe and complex situation rarely seen since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The US recently has been making remarks and taking steps that interfered in China’s internal affairs and undermined China’s interests on a series of issues. This has caused grave damage to China-US relations. Some people in the US, driven by ideological prejudice, have resorted to all possible means to smear China’s image, attack China, and frustrate exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. Their words and actions were inconsistent with even the basic facts, misled the US public, and posed serious challenges to the common interests of two peoples.
In light of this situation, China has stated its principled position many times, and has responded, and will continue to respond as necessary, to resolutely safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.
China and the US both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, a lesson from history of their bilateral relations. The right way for the two countries to get along with each other lies in mutual respect and seeking common ground while putting aside differences.
With a civilization extending over 5,000 years, China has experienced and withstood countless storms. Today, it is more poised and resilient than ever to overcome risks and challenges, and make steady progress toward its goals.
In dealing with the serious and complex situation facing China-US relations, China, always bearing in mind the fundamental interests of the Chinese and American peoples and the people of the world, has demonstrated goodwill and sincerity, and has been working hard to develop a China-US relationship of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation. The US should stop challenging China’s core interests. Any US bullying and injustice imposed on China will be resolutely pushed back. Any attempt to contain China’s development is doomed to fail.
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi outlined China’s principled position on the current state of China-US relations in his recent remarks to the China-US Think Tanks Media Forum. He made three suggestions, namely, to activate and open all the channels of dialogue, review and agree on the lists of interactions, and focus and cooperate on COVID-19 response. The US should consider these suggestions seriously, correct its wrongdoing, stop saying and doing negative things, and work with China to bring this relationship back to the right track of coordination, cooperation and stability.
II. The sudden COVID-19 onslaught has had enormous impacts on China and the world. The US should stop politicizing the disease, stigmatizing the virus, and smearing China. Instead, it should foster favorable conditions for China-US cooperation against COVID-19.
The sudden COVID-19 onslaught has had enormous impacts on China and the world. Putting people and their life first, China has taken the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough containment measures. Major strategic gains have been made in bringing the virus under control. All this was achieved because of the relentless efforts of the Chinese people. It was also attributable to the insightful vision and extraordinary leadership of Chinese leaders.
In fighting the virus, China has been open and transparent. It has shared information with the international community on a timely basis, provided assistance and support to other countries to the best of its ability, and actively engaged in international cooperation against the virus.
Meanwhile, my thanks go to AmCham China and its members. At the most difficult time of China’s COVID-19 response in February this year, they provided generous donations to China, which fully proves their corporate social responsibility and the friendship between Chinese and American peoples.
Since the virus started to spread in the US, many Chinese provinces, cities, companies, and ordinary people from all walks of life have made donations to their sister states and cities, and to businesses and various communities in the US. China has facilitated large US purchase of medical supplies from the Chinese market.
With COVID-19 still spreading and escalating in the US, we are ready to have cooperation with the US on fighting the virus to save more lives together. We urge the US to stop politicizing the disease, stigmatizing the virus, smearing China, and scapegoating. The US should focus on containing the virus at home, and foster favorable conditions for China-US cooperation against COVID-19.
III. China is now advancing both COVID-19 response and economic and social development, and making fast yet steady progress in reform and opening-up. China will continue to welcome foreign enterprises to its market for more investment and cooperation, and this commitment will remain unchanged.
China is now advancing both COVID-19 response and economic and social development to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and end absolute poverty.
While keeping up the response to the virus, we are working to maintain stability in the six key areas (i.e., employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and market expectations) and provide protections in six priority areas (i.e., jobs, people’s livelihood, the development of market entities, food and energy security, stable operation of the industrial and supply chains, and smooth functioning at the community level). A string of strong measures have been adopted, including on the fiscal, tax and financial fronts.
The fundamentals sustaining long-term and sound growth of the Chinese economy remain unchanged, and will not change. In the second quarter this year, China’s secondary and service industries returned to positive growth. Consumption and investment continued to pick up. And the main economic indicators markedly improved over the first quarter.
International capital markets and investors have a positive view about China’s economic trajectory. And the IMF made an optimistic forecast about the prospects of the Chinese economy.
China’s reform and opening-up did not stop because of COVID-19, but continued to make fast yet steady progress. In his keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in April 2018, President Xi Jinping announced four major measures on furthering opening-up, including significantly widening market access, fostering a more attractive investment environment, strengthening intellectual property protection, and taking the initiative to expand imports. Over the past two-plus years, these measures have been well implemented and produced positive results.
China’s overall tariff rate has been reduced to 7.5%, lower than that of other major developing countries and close to that of developed countries. Import tariffs on more than 850 items have been further lowered since January this year, including consumer goods, vital medicines and advanced technological equipment.
Market access in finance, services, manufacturing, agriculture, and infrastructure are further expanded. The negative list on the market access of foreign investment and the one on foreign investment in the pilot free trade zones have been substantially shortened in the past four years. The numbers of restricted items have been cut respectively from 93 to 33, and from 122 to 30.
With the Measures for Further Opening Up the Financial Sector released July last year, China’s financial sector has been fully opened to the world.
The development of the Hainan Free Trade Port is picking up speed, and new pilot free trade zones and integrated bonded areas will be set up in the central and western regions of China.
The promulgation of the Regulation on Implementing the Foreign Investment Law is another step to protect intellectual property rights and foster a market environment where domestic and foreign-invested enterprises are treated as equals and compete on a level playing field.
Mankind in today’s world are a community with a shared future, and win-win cooperation is the trend of the times. China is as determined as ever to deepen reform and further opening-up. China will continue to welcome foreign enterprises to its market for more investment and cooperation, and this commitment will remain unchanged. We will continue to build a market-oriented and world-class business environment governed by a sound legal framework, and will treat enterprises of all types of ownership, and both domestic and foreign-investment companies, as equals.
IV. The US should stop restricting and cracking down on Chinese companies. It should provide a level playing field for businesses of the two countries to cooperate for mutual benefits. China, as always, supports the US business community in seizing the opportunities to increase investment in and cooperation with China to achieve win-win outcomes.
China and the US are at different stages of economic development and are highly complementary to each other. Economic cooperation and trade between the two countries are a result of the international division of labor and reflect the choice of our businesses and consumers. The China-US economic relationship is mutually beneficial by nature, a judgment proven true by loads of facts.
A recent report by Cato Institute, an American think tank, again highlighted that fact. The report held that trade with China provided ample benefits for American consumers; trade with China has helped, not hurt US manufacturers and jobs; manufacturing job losses and unemployment among US workers have little to do with import from China; and Chinese compliance with WTO rules is arguably better than that of the US.
The Chinese side has been serious in its commitment and actions to implement the phase one economic and trade agreement. Meanwhile, the implementation requires the joint efforts of both sides. The US side should stop restrictive and discriminatory practices against Chinese businesses. It should create enabling conditions for the implementation of the agreement.
The US side has overstretched the notion of national security and gone out of its way to bash China’s high-tech companies. This will only force China to accelerate innovation and development of its high-tech industry. As a result, the US companies would lose the market share and cooperation opportunities that they would have enjoyed otherwise.
Those in the US trumpeting cutting off economic links with China are going against the basic common sense and the law of economics. What they do will only damage the fundamental interests of businesses and consumers of the two countries. In this context, China urges the US to cease anti-China hysteria and stop practices that benefit no one.
AmCham China has a history of more than a century. With decades of engagement with China, its members have witnessed the historic changes in the country as a result of reform and opening-up, and the enormous benefits of China-US economic cooperation for both sides. AmCham China has served as a propeller and a bridge for the China-US relationship.
We, as always, welcome US companies to invest and grow in the Chinese market, and support mutually beneficial cooperation between the businesses of the two countries. The US business community is welcome to seize the opportunities to strengthen cooperation with their Chinese partners for shared growth and win-win results.