WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) — Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng has said that in the face of the new circumstances and challenges, “scapegoating solves no problem, and trade war, industrial war or tech war produces no winner.”
Xie made the remarks at the sixth U.S.-China Business Forum held by Forbes China in New York on Tuesday.
“A major inspiration we can get from China-U.S. relations over the past 45 years is that when we work together, both countries and peoples will fare well; but when we turn against each other, both sides and the world will suffer. Cooperation is the only right choice,” Xie said.
As the top two engines of world economic growth, China and the United States make up over one-third of the global economy, and about one-fifth of global trade, the ambassador noted.
“Any decoupling between us would only make the world poorer,” he said.
Over the past 45 years, two-way trade expanded over 200 times, surpassing 600 billion U.S. dollars annually, he noted, adding that in the first seven months of this year, two-way trade grew 4.1 percent when denominated in RMB.
“Therefore, we are already deeply intertwined and basically inseparable from each other,” he said.
As a new round of the scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is unfolding, all countries are on a boat sailing upstream, i.e. facing challenges together, the Chinese ambassador said.
“Only when we face the challenges squarely, make ourselves more competitive and paddle together can we ride the tide and forge ahead,” he said.
“We need to both expand cooperation in traditional areas including economy, trade and agriculture, and nurture cooperation in new areas such as climate change and AI, so that both our countries and the world will come out as winners,” he said.
The ambassador also noted that “there is simply no reason” why the China-U.S. relationship should be a zero-sum game.
“Our two countries can help each other succeed in a race to the top, and both develop ourselves and prosper together on this vast planet,” he said.