Former Treasury chiefs discuss US-China economic ties

(R-L) Former U.S. treasury secretaries Jacob Lew, Timothy Geithner, Robert Rubin and W. Michael Blumenthal attend the "Leader Speak: Treasury Secretaries" event at the China-U.S. SkyClub in New York March 29, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua/Wang Ying]

Four former U.S. Treasury secretaries have gathered in New York to discuss key economic issues between the United States and China.

CRI's Liu Mohan reports.

The four secretaries were Jacob Lew, the 76th Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, the 70th Treasury Secretary, Werner Michael Blumenthal, the 64th Treasury Secretary and Timothy Geithner, the 75th Treasury Secretary.

Looking back on the reforms made by China and a series of bilateral cooperation deals during their terms in office, the secretaries agree that China has become increasingly involved in the international community and is contributing more to global affairs. 

Jacob Lew referred to the example of the Paris agreement reached under Obama's administration. 

"I think if the U.S and China had not moved forward together in the conversations on climate change, it would have been virtually impossible to get to the Paris Agreement and to have Paris go to effect. Remarkable bilateral cooperation, as Bob said, it was the U.S.-China relationship that pulled the world along."

While U.S. and China have joined hands to tackle international problems of common interests, disagreements on issues such as the RMB exchange rate and trade protectionism still exist.

But Robert Rubin stresses that the US must stick to a mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship, especially when China's investment in the United States has been on the rise in recent years. 

"If the Chinese holders of capital want to provide enormous amount of capital to the United States, and therefore make capital more readily available to this country to promote economic growth. I think that's wonderful for us." 

China's official data showed bilateral trade surged from 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 1979 to over 519 billion dollars in 2016, an increase of more than 200-fold.

Touching on the future prospects after U.S. president Donald Trump took office in January this year, Werner Michael Blumenthal says friendly and healthy relationships should be maintained over the next four years. 

"Ever since, Richard Nixon in the early 70s, the importance of establishing a strong relationship between the U.S. and China, and working hard to make that happen, has been a bipartisan matter. Within that, a very important bipartisan understanding about the critical importance of the relationship between the two countries. And what that means and how that needs to be nourished and handled carefully, and with understanding, I hope that continues in the next four years."

Timothy Geithner says despite the frictions and differences between the two, it is all the more important for China and the United States to communicate, coordinate and cooperate more closely for the sake of global stability.

"We have tough issues to work out together. They are very complicated issues, they require a lot of definiteness and patience, and there's going to be a lot of friction, tension and that sort of things. So it's important to make sure you preserve space for a more subsumption and a deeper conversation." 

The discussion was held in New York City and was hosted by the National Committee on U.S-China Relations. 

For CRI, this is Liu Mohan.