By Wu Yuehe
Why should China and the US choose to cooperate, and why should economic globalization be advocated and protected? These are two questions that urgently need to be answered amid the economic and trade tensions between the two largest economies of the world.
The US administration reiterated that many enterprises had moved from China to other countries including the US to avoid hiked tariffs, but the tariff rise has been strongly opposed by US citizens on social media platforms.
Besides, letters have been sent to the US government from all walks of US society, demanding an end to the trade dispute, and US research institutions also sounded warnings based on polls.
How people think matters, as the trade issue concerns “everybody”. It has long been emphasized in China since ancient times that governance shall be enhanced if it is in accordance with people’s aspiration. In the current time of economic globalization, people’s aspiration should be attached with more importance.
As participators of the China-US cooperation, the people can feel and benefit from the relationship, and their voices should be heard.
Peter Verbrugge is an American cherry farmer who helped ring the opening bell of a Chinese company at the New York Stock Exchange five years ago. He said then that the expectation for the best cherries on the planet from the people and children from halfway around the world made him work hard every day, and he wanted to make them happy.
At that time, he was immersed in the huge surprise he received from a Chinese e-commerce platform. It only took 48 to 72 hours to deliver his cherries that had just been picked from his Washington-based farm to Chinese consumers. The grower sold 108 tons of cherries to 55,000 consumers in a dozen-day presale activity alone, an equivalent to the sales of 1,000 medium- to large-scale supermarkets in China.
Verbrugge’s story about economic globalization proved that the global value chain, supported by the application of new technologies, is able to create fortune and opportunities in a magical way, and of course, this can only be achieved with cooperation.
According to the latest statistics of the US-China Business Council, over the past decade, Kentucky’s goods exports to China have grown by 157%, more than doubling the overall growth rate of that to other countries. Its services exports to China have increased by 250%, over ten times the overall growth rate of that to other countries.
China is Tennessee’s third largest market for both goods and services exports and ranks among the top five for Colorado, Michigan and Washington State.
Facts once again indicate that in the era of economic globalization, China and the US see frequent exchanges and integrated interests, and cooperation remains the only right choice.
The people from both countries hope to take each other as sincere friends and win-win partners.
Recently, two different voices respectively supporting the continuation and termination of the trade dispute have been going neck by neck. On one hand, some US politicians are constantly provoking frictions and exerting extreme pressure; on the other hand, the strong demand for cooperation is also flooding the US society.
Last month, when the melody of the classical Chinese song Mo Li Hua (jasmine flower) reverberated in the Salt Lake City at the Golden Spike festival commemorating the sesquicentennial of the completion of Transcontinental Railroad, people saluted to the 12,000 Chinese workers who made huge contributions to the railway construction promoted by Abraham Lincoln.
They appreciated the industrial miracle jointly created by the two peoples, and expressed their hope that the two countries can join hands in today’s world to continuously make profits for both parties.
To cut off the relationship between China and the US is beyond imagination, nor conforms to the common aspiration of the US public. What people expect is cooperation and exchanges rather than confrontation and isolation.
Many people hold the conviction that the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have long since laid a solid foundation for China-US friendship, and the general direction of the relationship should not be reverted. The interests of the two peoples shall never be a sacrificial lamb of the “new Cold War” to be provoked by some ulterior US politicians.
People’s aspiration should not be defied, and those who go against the trend of time will finally be abandoned by history. It should be noted that economic globalization is advancing based on negotiated cooperation, and whoever “backtracks” will be eliminated. However, the general development of the globalization will not be affected at all.
“If we close ourselves off from other, you know, other innovative economies and entrepreneurs, we jeopardize our leadership position in the world and we’re much less attractive as a destination for foreign investment,” warned Former US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson.
The selfish deeds of isolation cannot be tolerated in the modern era of globalization. To grasp the general trend of global economy is a required course in economic studies, and also a big issue that concerns the public aspiration. It’s obvious that some US decision makers have been absent from the course for too much.
At the recent G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting held in Japan, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that if China wants to come back to the table and negotiate on the basis that the two countries were negotiating, they can get a great historic deal. If they don’t, the US will proceed with tariffs, he added.
Such remarks expressed nothing but the US failure in understanding what sincerity is. Washington just doesn’t know how to be fair and respectful. It is trapped in a vicious circle which is isolated from the trend of time, and its practices, hurting both the others and itself, will not receive any support.
