CCG’s twelve suggestions for the strengthening of Sino-U.S. relations
May 28 , 2019As the 19th CPC National Congress concluded, U.S President Donald Trump paid his first official state visit to China on Nov. 8. Once again, the Sino-US summit meeting will attract tremendous attention from all over the world.
On Nov 2, 2017, Center for China and Globalization (CCG) held a conference to release its report for future cooperation of China and the United States. Guests attending the conference included:
- Cui Fan, professor in International Trade, School of International Trade and Economics (SITE) of the University of International Business and Economics;
- Lu Jinyong, professor in International Trade, School of International Trade and Economics (SITE) of the University of International Business and Economics;
- Lu Xiang, research fellow of Institute of World Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;
- Teng Jianqun, Director of the Department of American Studies and a senior research fellow at CIIS.
To gain more insights with regards to the upcoming American presidential visit and strengthen the Sino-US think tank exchange, CCG conducted a field trip to the United States in October in New York and Washington, DC. The delegation visited multiple government agencies, NGOs, think tanks, and companies and met with many prominent policymakers, scholars and business leaders. Based on the findings of CCG’s previous studies and its field trip to the United States, CCG provides 12 suggestions to enhance the bilateral cooperation in the sectors such as infrastructure construction, trade and economy, studying abroad, and outer space development, and build a constructive relationship to achieve win-win cooperation.
- A Sino-US Infrastructure Investment Fund can be established to promote the cooperation in this field; China can also extend an invitation to the United States to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the “Belt & Road” Initiative.
- China and the United States can jointly push forward the creation of Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).
- China can import more petroleum, natural gas, agricultural products and commercial jets from the United States, while pushing America to loosen its restriction on technology transfer to China, to narrow the trade gap between the two countries.
- China and America could seek more cooperation in the new fields such as on areas including space exploration, talent development, and Internet technology, and work together to improve contribute to joint global governance.
- China and the United States should strive to set more appropriate standards to calculate the bilateral trade, since the current method leads to an exaggerated trade surplus of China with America.
- China and the United States should continue to expand cooperation in tourism, education and immigration and promote the trade in services.
- The Chinese government can provide guidance on Chinese companies’ greenfield investment in the United States, which can reduce energy cost, create local job opportunities, and improve their overall global competitiveness.
- China and the United States should continue to improve the respective policy environment to facilitate corporate investment in each other, observing the national treatment principle.
- China and the United States should strengthen communications and coordination on national debt trading to achieve win-win outcome.
- China and the United States can strengthen the cooperation in infrastructure building, climate change and energy at the provincial/state level.
- More efforts are needed to accelerate BIT and trade agreement negotiation process to reduce the barriers in the bilateral investment and further open up the markets to each other.
- The think tanks, trade associations and other non-profit organizations in China and the United States can enhance their cooperation and exchange as the “Track II” diplomacy activities to help remove misperception and promote mutual understanding of each other.
During the discussion, Professor Teng Jianqun recognizes CCG’s suggestion that the United States and China should seek more cooperation on tourism, education and investment. In his mind, after Mar-a-Lago summit between President Xi and President Trump, China and the United States ought to make some breakthroughs in terms of cultural exchange, finance, security and other important areas.
Professor Cui Fan predicts the trade pattern between China and the United States for the next 30 years. As he estimates, the two countries will share more similarities in terms of industry advantages and the target of their trade will shift from products to capital, technology and talents. Then, the competition of state-owned companies will become more urgent and the two countries should coordinate their economic and trade relation compatible with global governance. Based on these considerations, Professor Cui proposes three advices. First, the two countries can compete with each other on the premise of their cooperation. Second, they ought to defend the current global economic governance. Third, China can drive its domestic reform by its relation with the United States.
From the viewpoint of Lv Xiang, the United States is now adopting a new type of ‘isolationism’ by taking less responsibility for international society, abandoning the current multilateral system and depending on bilateral relations to deal with its foreign relations. Also, President Trump’s visit to China has caused extensive attention. More than 40 companies and over 10 energy companies also visited China, which means that the two countries may have more cooperation in the areas such as energy, construction, etc.
Professor Lu Jinyong is optimistic about the future of the relation of China and the United States. Despite some disputes over some tiny issues, China and the United States have maintained a good relation since President Trump’s taking office. The current concern is that many issues have been interpreted in a political way. Therefore, in the future cooperation of China and the United States, the two countries should respect more each other’s core interests, correct their false understanding of each other’s intention and status and stick to win-win principle.
In the end, the experts share opinions with media over issues such as Trump’s focus during this visit, China’s open market after the 19th Congress of CPC.
