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China, U.S. to create new, win-win space |
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15:50, January 16, 2009 |
Sino-US bilateral economic and trade ties have been growing rapidly since the two nations resumed their diplomatic ties three decades ago. The mutually-beneficial and win-win economic and trade ties have not only brought substantial economic interests to both nations but provided a vital basis or given a powerful impetus to the development of bilateral relations.
From the early eighties of the 20th century, the United States has reshaped for the third time its industrial structure after World War II. It so happened that China pressed ahead with its reform and opening-up, attracted or sought foreign capital in a big way and gone all out to develop processing trade in this three-odd decade period. The rationale of the division and cooperation of labor between the two nations, which is most wide-ranging and on the greatest global scale, has taken shape. It is attributable precisely to this basic reason for the fast growth of Sino-US economic and trade cooperation.
To date, Sino-US economic and trade ties have shifted from their ties of mutual benefit to the bond of interdependence. By the year-end of 2008, the accumulated American investment in China had totaled almost 60 billion US dollars and China's actual investment in the U.S. reached about 3 billion dollars. By late October 2008, China surpassed Japan and Britain to become the biggest foreign holder of US treasuries.
Moreover, Sino-US economic and trade cooperation has given rise to a "trade-balance-transfer" effect. Since China's reform and opening-up commenced three decades ago, some 60 percent of the Chinese mainland's foreign investment came from East Asia countries and regions. Meanwhile, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Singapore and the Hong Kong-Taiwan region shifted away those products to be made in the U.S. to China's mainland. Consequently, 70 percent of China exports to the U.S. are from foreign-invested firms or enterprises on the mainland. So the products manufactured by those cooperatives or 100 percent overseas-own enterprises are actually produced in Asia instead of "Made in China". So, China's trade surplus is practically shared by the above countries and regions rather than owned by China alone.
In fact, the trade between China and the U.S. has far outstripped the scope of bilateral trade and become intra-multinational trade between the U.S. and East Asia. The rapid growth of Sino-US trade helps not only to promote economic development both in China and the U.S. but to pull up or spur the economic growth in East Asia region and elsewhere on earth.
The current global financial crisis has inflicted a relatively heavier blow to China's exports, but it has only had a much less impact on the U.S.' exports to China. As a matter of fact, China's total imports reached 1.13 trillion dollars in 2008, ranking the second worldwide, only next to the U.S., according to statistics with its General Administration of Customs. At the same time, China's imports from the U.S. exceeded 80 billion dollars in the year, an increase of 17.4 percent year-on-year.
If President-elect Barack Obama eases the control on technology transfer to China, American firms would have much more market share in China, one of the newly emerging markets. With the launch of a "10-year framework on China-US energy cooperation", noted industry insiders, then the U.S. huge business opportunities would be estimated at approximately 100 billion dollars.
In the present situation of the escalating global financial crisis, the two countries should reduce their frictions through dialogue, enhance mutual understating, and press ahead with a benign mutual induction, so as to go on creating a new, win-win space for the economic development of both nations and contribute more to the all-round recovery of world economy.
By People's Daily Online, and its author is Zhou Shijian, a Senor Research Fellow at the Center for U.S.-China Relations with prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2009-01/16/content_177537.htm
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