Friction reduction lies on mutual trust

US Secretary of Commerce Donald Louis Evans has paid his visit to China for four times. It is without doubt that the visit of the outgoing US Secretary of Commerce is significant for serving as a link between past and future. Some media made a summary of his visit to China saying he resorted to carrot-and -stick approach. "Soft" is his active evaluation on the Sino-US economic and trade relations while "hard" pointed to his stand on protecting intellectual property rights. From the prospect of he Sino-US economic and trade relations it is in line with the judgment of "going forward in friction" on the whole.

Evans' visit to China places stress on strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, however, behind which are the worries about the increase of US trade deficit. In US view, the key to the Sino-US trade friction is that China has bought less from the US while US has purchased more from China. According to the estimation by US experts, due to the intellectual property rights infringement the Chinese side is equivalent to "paying "24 billion US dollars less" to the US.

Of course, the problem Evans is concerned about is very important. For this, Chinese side is taking active measures to crack down on all kinds of "pirated?¡À activities and the demolition of the famous Xiushui Market in Beijing is one of the steps to fight against pirated activities. But, we should also notice that the US side is also obligatory on the responsibility on the issue of settling the US trade deficit. In fact, the trade imbalance between China and US is mainly attributed to the unreasonable structure with profound political background. For instance, Chinese technical imports from US have been strictly restricted for many years.

In the technical trade area, the European Union is ahead of US. Just before Evans' visit to China EU has become the top technical supplier according to the latest statistics released by China. On a whole, at present EU has invested less in China when compared with that of US, however, the investment has been made in some fast-growing areas in the economy of China. For example in the petrochemical, electricity and urban infrastructure areas, EU has been in the leading position through a long period of efforts. In recent years, China and Europe have continuously developed their cooperative relations in the high-tech areas involving aviation and space programs and China has joined the development of " Galileo Project". The biggest cooperative project in scientific research is the "framework programme" between China and Europe. Not long ago EU gave signal that it would lift its arm embargo against China.

In contrast, US has put more restriction on China. From the laws on US China trade control we can see clearly China's position in the strategies of US foreign affairs, economy and trade. Apart from military product embargo, China's position is only next to US hostile countries in the areas of chemical products, rocket technology and materials, and computer, so China is subject to US export control very strictly. In a long term, the control has become a big obstacle for Sino-US bilateral trade.

According to US media the relations between China and Europe are established on a pragmatic economic basis, while the relations between China and US are different as US deems China as a potential antagonist. What we mean here by pragmatism is the starting point for mutual trust. The rapid development of China and Europe trade shows that it weighs on establishing mutual trust to reduce friction and make trade more balanced. During Evans' visit to China Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai gave his assessment of his work that is 70 per cent of achievements. We will see if his successor can achieve better results in his work. Of course we will also see if his successor can make more efforts in establishing mutual trust.

By People's Daily Online