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BEIJING. – Business communities in China and the US have expressed their excitement over the first virtual face-to-face meeting between the two countries’ top leaders, as they hope the world’s two largest economies can move forward on more sectors that could bring trade ties back on track.
Nevertheless, industry players from the two countries urged Washington to do more, from removing unreasonable tariffs to stopping its bullying of Chinese firms so that the two could conduct follow-up negotiations as soon as possible.
“It’s a positive signal for China-US economic and trade cooperation. Members of our chamber said they have seen the ‘dawn for an easing of relations’ between the two countries and a sign of strengthened cooperation. This exciting news has greatly encouraged everyone,” the board of directors of the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA (CGCCUSA) said in an interview yesterday.
Lasting about three-and-a-half hours, the long-anticipated meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden stopped short of trade negotiations. The two sides discussed trade and economic issues of mutual concern, and reached a consensus on ramping up communication on each other’s macroeconomic policies.
China also agreed to upgrade a “fast-track” arrangement to make it more convenient for the US business community to travel to China.
“A fast-track travel proposal is something that we’ve been working on for months with Chinese authorities, and we’re very happy to see President Xi refer to this as a priority,” said Greg Gilligan, AmCham China chairman.
Establishing a fast track can alleviate practical difficulties encountered by the two countries in investment and trade cooperation, and facilitate exchanges between Chinese and American business people, and help boost the economic recovery of the two, CGCCUSA said.
The US-China Business Council (USCBC), an advocacy organisation representing more than 260 member companies that do business in China, said it hopes separate meetings will be organized to discuss economic and trade issues between the US and China.
“Given that US-China economic and trade ties have been a ballast of the relationship and can help manage strategic risks, we hope separate meetings will be scheduled soon to discuss economic and trade issues with China,” said Craig Allen, president of USCBC, in a statement on Tuesday.
Global financial markets also edged up on Tuesday on the heels of the meeting, with onshore and offshore yuan surging to new highs. Observers saw the meeting as a boost to global financial markets, as it injected certainty into the future of China-US relations as well as the global economy that’s been battered by the pandemic and a broken industrial chain.
It is expected that the exchanges between economic and trade officials from the two sides will accelerate. However, the US still needs to make more efforts to fully normalize economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, said Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
Tariffs and unfair treatment of Chinese firms should be the most severe mistakes for the US to correct, analysts said.
“It should be noted that trade between China and US should be equal and mutually beneficial. We should open up, and so should the US. At the same time, the US should abandon its long-arm jurisdiction and unreasonable restrictions and suppression of Chinese high-tech enterprises,” Dong said.
At Tuesday’s leaders’ meeting, President Xi stressed that economic and trade issues between the two countries should not be politicized and urged that the US should stop abusing or overstretching the concept of national security to suppress Chinese businesses.
Although the US did not respond to China’s concern on a unilateral crackdown of Chinese tech firms, there is limited number of cards in the Biden administration’s hand to deter an irreversible trend of bilateral tech cooperation, said an industry insider at a leading Chinese tech firm, who prefers not to be identified.
“Any further moves targeting Chinese firms would trigger a wave of objections from US businesses and capital markets, and the Biden administration shall trade off its tech approach to China very carefully,” the insider said, while stressing that in the tech sphere, China and the US have not reached the stage of “starcraft,” and only cooperation could reduce costs.
“China will have more bargaining chips to negotiate with the US as our tech industry rises,” he added.
Chinese businesses in the US also warned that the US’ arbitrary crackdown on Chinese firms has affected their confidence in the US market, and hope for a fairer and stable business environment.
“An uncertain environment in the US market will also weaken Chinese firms’ confidence, and affect their support for US subsidiaries’ operations, expansion, and investment in the US,” said CGCCUSA.
Analysts and observers said whether on tariff reduction or more economic policy coordination, the US is in a more eager need than China, which urged the US to take more initiatives and show greater sincerity to improve ties with China. – Global Times
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter