Despite trade frictions in the past few years and constant calls for "decoupling with China" from some U.S. officials, new trends emerging in Sino-U.S. economic and trade development are telling where momentum really lies for the world's two biggest economies.
STRONG COMPLEMENTARITY
In the first eight months of this year, Chinese exports to the United States, rather than falling, expanded 22.7 percent year on year, according to official data.
Customs data shows that since the United States imposed additional tariffs on Chinese products in July 2018, Sino-U.S. trade dropped in 2019 but was soon back to growth from 2020.
SOUNDBITE 1 (English): MATTHEW MARGULIES, Vice president of China Operations, U.S.-China Business Council
"China continues to implement some economic reforms and introduce new policies that promote investment in the central China regions; companies increasingly are looking to the opportunities here, there's a great potential in central China. We really look forward to participating and contributing to that development here."
Imports from China accounted for 19 percent of all U.S. goods imports in 2020, the highest among all trading partners of the United States, while four of ten kinds of fastest-growing imports in the U.S. came from China, according to Forbes.
SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): GAO FENG, Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesperson
"The imposition of extra tariffs by the United States is not good for China, the enterprises of United States and consumers, adding uncertainty to the global economy."
U.S. importers absorbed more than 90 percent of the additional costs caused by the increased U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service in May.
MAGNET FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT
With a large market, complete industrial chain and favorable business environment, China has become a "strong magnetic field" for foreign investment.
Rising above the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic recession, China recorded a four-percent growth in inflows, overtaking the United States as the largest foreign direct investment recipient last year, a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development shows.
Peter Lippold, an engineer from Germany working at FAW-Volkswagen in China, says China's development is bringing opportunities to the world.
FAW-Volkswagen is a Sino-German joint venture founded in China in 1991.
It has grown into one of the best-selling passenger vehicle manufacturers in China, the world's largest auto market.
SOUNDBITE 3 (English): PETER LIPPOLD, VW platform manager of FAW-VW product management
"China has a big development. Now you see today China is one of the biggest trade markets and with a lot of industries and with a lot of handling things. China is now big. So the economy was growing. The people was growing."
Figures previously released by the BMW Group show that in the first half of this year the Munich-based company achieved bright results in China, delivering more than 467,000 BMW and MINI brand vehicles to Chinese customers, up 41.9 percent year-on-year.
SOUNDBITE 4 (English): FRANK VAN MEEL, Senior Vice President product line luxury class BMW
"For us, China is one of our biggest and most important markets. It's still one of our strongest growing markets and, regarding volume and footprint in the local market with our partners in China and also with the local production in China, and the supplier base in China. It's strongly growing."
The U.S.-China Business Council said in its 2021 member survey that a majority of companies remain profitable, and more than 40 percent have plans to increase resource commitments in China over the next year.
SOUNDBITE 5 (English): OLIVER RAPPORT, CEO, British luxury goods manufacturer Rapport London
"The Chinese market has become a focus for us. We see it a very important market. The Chinese market I believe was one of the only economy to actually grow in the last year and its going from strength to strength. "
Some U.S. politicians attempted to "decouple" from China by trying to bring manufacturing back to the United States, calling on U.S. enterprises to withdraw from China, increasing restrictions on technology investment in China, and isolating China with its allies.
On the contrary, the European Union saw its actual investment in China rose 10.3 percent year on year in the first half of the year, while countries along the Belt and Road and the Association of Southeast Asian countries reported an investment increase of 37.6 percent and 36.8 percent in China in the first eight months, respectively.
In recent years, China has introduced a raft of measures to accelerate opening-up and foster a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment, in a bid to better accommodate overseas investors.
The country has shortened the negative list for foreign investment for four consecutive years and released a negative list for cross-border trade in services at the Hainan free trade port, among others.
SOUNDBITE 6 (English): STEPHEN PERRY, Chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club
"So it's a great opportunity for people to get a sense of where China is going and one of the opportunities to sell to China, or do business with China in other places in the world. It's a very stimulating and exciting fair."
COOPERATION PREVAILS
The "decoupling" mindset has led to a host of calculated shots at Chinese hi-tech companies in an attempt to suppress China's scientific and technological innovations. But they cannot derail China's scientific and technological pursuits.
China's expenditures in research and development (R&D) are growing steadily. R&D spending in 2020 topped 2.44 trillion yuan (about 378 billion U.S. dollars), after hiking 12.5 percent year on year to reach 2.21 trillion yuan (about 341 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019.
Spending on basic research stood at 150.4 billion yuan (about 23 billion U.S. dollars)last year, nearly doubling that of 2015.
Export restrictions are a "double-edged sword": they will hurt not only Chinese high-tech enterprises but also firms in the United States and other countries that have business relations with their Chinese partners.
SOUNDBITE 7 (English): QIN GANG, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S.
"China's economy is promising, its market potential is huge, and its door of opening up will not close."
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
