US, China should seize opportunities for dialogue, cooperation amid tensions, experts say_Xinhua

Imposing tariffs on China will not create many, if any, U.S. jobs and may well result in net U.S. job losses due to a loss of competitiveness, said Sachs. The best way to help the lagging American Midwest is to implement U.S. regional development policies and other social spending, such as job retraining.

by Xinhua writer Yang Shilong

NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) — In interviews with Xinhua after Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 2024 U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) Gala Dinner, experts said that the United States and China should seize the opportunities. dialogue and cooperate in a context of persistent tensions.

In the congratulatory letter sent on Wednesday, Xi said China and the United States should choose dialogue over confrontation, and win-win cooperation over zero-sum games.

Noting that China-U.S. relations are one of the most important relations in the world, Xi said they not only concern the immediate interests of the Chinese and American people, but also the future and destiny of the entire humanity.

Success for one side should be an opportunity rather than a challenge for the other, and the achievements of one should help rather than hinder the development of the other, he added.

THE ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF “DEEPLY MALPLACED” AMERICAN PROTECTIONISM

Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned American economist and professor at Columbia University, called Xi's remarks “very wise” and hopes Washington will take them into account.

“President Xi's words are very wise, and I hope they are not in vain,” Sachs said, criticizing the United States for adopting protectionist policies.

According to Sachs, the United States became protectionist for three reasons: First, it worked politically to blame manufacturing job losses in the American Midwest on China. The American Midwest states were the “swing states” in presidential elections, so both parties became protectionist.

Second, the United States aims to use protectionism as an industrial policy to create U.S.-based industries in green and digital technologies that lag behind those in China.

Third, the United States seeks to use protectionism to hinder China's rise in a zero-sum strategy aimed at strengthening American hegemony.

All three arguments for U.S. protectionism are “deeply misplaced,” Sachs said.

“The United States has benefited enormously from trade with China. Creating an artificial tariff wall against trade with China would be a losing proposition,” he said. “The main source of employment decline is technology, not trade.”

Imposing tariffs on China will not create many, if any, U.S. jobs and may well result in net U.S. job losses due to a loss of competitiveness, said Sachs. The best way to help the lagging American Midwest is to implement U.S. regional development policies and other social spending, such as job retraining.

“US industrial policy on green and digital technologies should not be aimed at China. Indeed, Chinese companies can and should be part of successful US-based industries,” he added.

“The U.S. idea of ​​hindering China's economic rise is deeply flawed and dangerous, introducing a misguided zero-sum mentality into a positive-sum relationship,” Sachs said.

SEARCH FOR A WAY FORWARD

Despite ongoing challenges, the U.S.-China relationship remains the most critical bilateral relationship in the world, said Mitchell Presnick, visiting scholar at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and founder of Super 8 Hotels China . He stressed that both countries recognize pragmatic reasons for keeping avenues of cooperation open.

“We have seen President Xi make significant efforts over the past year to engage the American business community,” Presnick noted, citing key events such as the APEC summit in San Francisco in November 2023 and the China Development Forum in Beijing in March 2024.

Behind the rhetoric of conflict and competition, “both sides are seeking a path forward that best serves each country's interests,” Presnick said.

“There are many ways in which the United States and China could, if they wish, improve their trade relationship and, in doing so, improve the relationship between the United States and China,” said Robert Kapp, former president of the USCBC.

Greg Cusack, a former Iowa state lawmaker, echoed those sentiments, calling for immediate action to ease tensions.

“How I would like us to try to grasp such words and seek to interpret them in the most positive way possible to begin that dialogue without which everything else would be difficult,” Cusack said, referring to the messages delivered by Xi and US President Joe Biden at USCBC event.

AN UNREALISTIC, DESTRUCTIVE “RADICAL DECOUPLING”

Michael Swaine, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, dismissed the idea of ​​“radical decoupling” as unrealistic and harmful.

“It is obvious to most who look at this issue clearly and seriously that economic ties between the United States and China cannot be severed without serious harm to both countries,” Swaine said.

“So this whole notion of decoupling, of radical decoupling, I think, is a sort of red herring. I don't think it's likely to happen. There will be enormous resistance in the business world and even among some politicians .”

Swaine called for increased communication to prevent crises from escalating into conflict, stressing the need for mutual understanding and trust.

“We want to have more communication,” he said.

(Xinhua correspondents Liu Yanan in New York, Xiong Maoling and Deng Xianlai in Washington DC contributed to the report)