Li: US, China must work for common goals
Mutually beneficial ties contribute to global peace, prosperity, says premier
Decoupling between China and the United States will benefit neither side but will harm the world, and the two nations should meet each other half way to work toward greater shared interests, Premier Li Keqiang said on April 13.
Speaking during a meeting with US business leaders via video link, Li highlighted the need for the two sides to solve the problems arising during the process of cooperation.
The meeting, chaired by former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, was attended by members of the USChina Business Council and executives from over 20 US-based multinationals. China and the US, the world’s largest developing nation and largest developed nation, stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, Li said.
Bilateral trade and economic ties are mutually beneficial, and these relations help increase the benefits enjoyed by both peoples and also contribute to global peace, stability, development and prosperity, he said.
Li cited the rise in bilateral trade volume in the face of multiple shocks last year as evidence that the conditions and opportunities for bilateral cooperation are an objective reality and the two sides need each other for trade and economic cooperation.
He highlighted the need for the two nations to respect the core interests and major concerns of each other in the spirit of nonconflict, nonconfrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
It is also important for the two sides to step up dialogue and communication, expand pragmatic cooperation, properly manage differences and move bilateral relations in a generally stable direction, he said.
Li reiterated China’s commitment to pursuing its basic national policy of opening-up, saying that China will only open wider to the world.
US business leaders stressed that avoiding confrontation and bringing US-China relations back to a constructive track meets the common interests of both sides.
Craig Allen, president of the USChina Business Council, said in a statement that the US business leaders emphasized the importance of fully implementing China’s economic reform agenda and fulfilling its commitments in phase one of the bilateral trade deal signed last year.
“We stressed that the new era of US-China relations will be defined by economic competition, but that frank communication can offset the risks of confrontation,” he said.
Separately, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and
Reform Commission said at a roundtable meeting of the NDRC and US multinational enterprises that China welcomes foreign companies to participate in its market and will strive to create a better business environment.
“We will further advance liberalization and facilitation in trade and investment, continue to promote opening-up based on flows of goods and factors of production, and give greater emphasis to opening-up based on rules and related institutions,” said Ning.
Citing China’s new five-year plan, he said the dual-circulation development paradigm — in which the domestic market is the mainstay and the domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other — does not mean seclusion under the domestic circulation model, but instead emphasizes further opening-up and a bolstering of ties with other nations.
Going forward, China will continue to shorten the negative lists for foreign investment access, advance orderly opening-up in the services sector, relax market access in the manufacturing sector, and promote the implementation of major foreign investment projects in China, according to Zhang Zhiqing, deputy director-general of the Department of Foreign Capital and Overseas Investment at the NDRC.
Experts said China’s continued opening-up measures are in line with the country’s new five-year plan, which will not only boost the country’s high-quality development but also inject new impetus to the global economic recovery.
Under the new development paradigm, China is dedicated to opening its economy wider, with a key focus on building an open market, expanding institutional opening-up and boosting innovation cooperation, said Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
“China is willing to build a global community with shared interests, shared responsibility and a shared future. Its continued opening-up measures will not only help create a key competitive edge in international cooperation, but also offer new growth opportunities for global stakeholders,” Zhang added.
The two sides must step up dialogue and communication, expand pragmatic cooperation, and properly manage differences.
LI KEQIANG
Premier