China-U.S. cooperation is the will of the people

China Plus Published: 2019-07-05 00:23:58
Comment
Share
Share this with Close
Messenger Messenger Pinterest LinkedIn

Note: The following article is taken from the Chinese-language "Commentaries on International Affairs".

The Washington Post published an open letter to United States President Donald Trump and members of Congress on Wednesday entitled "China is not an enemy”. The open letter was co-signed by around one hundred people from American academic, diplomatic, military, and business circles. The letter expressed concern about the growing deterioration of the U.S. relationship with China, which the signatories believe does not serve the U.S. interests. The letter says there is no single consensus in Washington endorsing an overall adversarial stance toward China, as some people believe exists.

[Photo: IC]

[Photo: IC]

The letter says that China is not an economic enemy, and that the United States has taken many actions that have directly contributed to the downward spiral of the bilateral relationship. It points out that the U.S. attempts to treat China as an enemy and to decouple it from the global economy will damage the standing of the United States in the world and undermine the economic interests of all nations, and that China’s engagement in the international system is essential to the system’s survival and to effective action on common problems such as climate change. The interests of the United States, it says, are best served by restoring its ability to compete effectively in a changing world and by working alongside other nations and international organizations, rather than by promoting a counterproductive effort to undermine and contain China.

The five authors of this open letter are M. Taylor Fravel, a professor of political science at MIT; J. Stapleton Roy, a distinguished scholar at the Wilson Center and a former U.S. ambassador to China; Michael D. Swaine, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Susan A. Thornton, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and a former acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs; and Ezra Vogel, a professor emeritus at Harvard University. Among them are experts and scholars engaged in the study of China-U.S. relations, and political figures with rich diplomatic experience. They reached a consensus with the letter’s many signatories. These signatories are Americans from all walks of life who believe that hostility towards China is not in the interest of their country. Their voices point to the policy of confrontation with China being advocated by a handful of hawkish politicians in the United States as being a minority view.

The open letter also shows that the outcomes of the meeting in Osaka between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump are in line with the will of the people in both countries. The Chinese and U.S. leaders reached an agreement to continue to advance bilateral ties based on coordination, cooperation, and stability, and agreed to restart the trade talks on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

As the letter noted, China is not an economic enemy of the United States. The two countries account for 40 percent of the world’s GDP, and they have benefited greatly from each other’s growing prosperity. This is why the decision by Washington to impose tariffs on imports from China is a loss for both sides. And they’re clearly not having the desired effect: According to data released by the US Department of Commerce on Wednesday, the U.S. trade deficit with China increased by 12.2 percent to 30.2 billion U.S. dollars in May. The tariffs are not the magic bullet for the country’s economic problems that some may have hoped.

The negotiating teams from the two countries will now turn their attention to overcoming the remaining sticking points, which include the decision by the United States to unilaterally hike tariffs on imports from China. These additional levies will need to be scrapped as part of any deal reached between the two countries. Reaching a final agreement will require determined effort by both sides, but if the negotiations can move forward in the spirit of equality and mutual respect, both countries will be a winner.

Related stories

Share this story on

Columnists

LU Xiankun Professor LU Xiankun is Managing Director of LEDECO Geneva and Associate Partner of IDEAS Centre Geneva. He is Emeritus Professor of China Institute for WTO Studies of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and Wuhan University (WHU) of China and visiting professor or senior research fellow of some other universities and think tanks in China and Europe. He also sits in management of some international business associations and companies, including as Senior Vice President of Shenzhen UEB Technology LTD., a leading e-commerce company of China. Previously, Mr. LU was senior official of Chinese Ministry of Commerce and senior diplomat posted in Europe, including in Geneva as Counsellor and Head of Division of the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO and in Brussels as Commercial Secretary of the Permanent Mission of China to the EU. Benjamin Cavender Benjamin Cavender is a Shanghai based consultant with more than 11 years of experience helping companies understand consumer behavior and develop go to market strategies for China. He is a frequent speaker on economic and consumer trends in China and is often featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Channel News Asia. Sara Hsu Sara Hsu is an associate professor from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a regular commentator on Chinese economy. Xu Qinduo Xu Qinduo is CRI's former chief correspondent to Washington DC, the United States. He works as the producer, host and commentator for TODAY, a flagship talk show on current affairs. Mr. Xu contributes regularly to English-language newspapers including Shenzhen Daily and Global Times as well as Chinese-language radio and TV services. Lin Shaowen A radio person, Mr. Lin Shaowen is strongly interested in international relations and Chinese politics. As China is quite often misunderstood in the rest of the world, he feels the need to better present the true picture of the country, the policies and meanings. So he talks a lot and is often seen debating. Then friends find a critical Lin Shaowen criticizing and criticized. George N. Tzogopoulos Dr George N. Tzogopoulos is an expert in media and politics/international relations as well as Chinese affairs. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre International de Européenne (CIFE) and Visiting Lecturer at the European Institute affiliated with it and is teaching international relations at the Department of Law of the Democritus University of Thrace. George is the author of two books: US Foreign Policy in the European Media: Framing the Rise and Fall of Neoconservatism (IB TAURIS) and The Greek Crisis in the Media: Stereotyping in the International Press (Ashgate) as well as the founder of chinaandgreece.com, an institutional partner of CRI Greek. David Morris David Morris is the Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commissioner in China, a former Australian diplomat and senior political adviser. Harvey Dzodin After a distinguished career in the US government and American media Dr. Harvey Dzodin is now a Beijing-based freelance columnist for several media outlets. While living in Beijing, he has published over 200 columns with an emphasis on arts, culture and the Belt & Road initiative. He is also a sought-after speaker and advisor in China and abroad. He currently serves as Nonresident Research Fellow of the think tank Center for China and Globalization and Senior Advisor of Tsinghua University National Image Research Center specializing in city branding. Dr. Dzodin was a political appointee of President Jimmy Carter and served as lawyer to a presidential commission. Upon the nomination of the White House and the US State Department he served at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria. He was Director and Vice President of the ABC Television in New York for more than two decades.