Arriving to a skeptical U.S.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is stumping his way through America this week, but he’s being met with a tepid welcome in both the business and political communities.
In a speech he delivered to about 650 business executives in Seattle on Tuesday, Xi said that China is committed to an open economy, human rights improvements, and fair opportunities for all. It was an interesting selection of reassurances, since Xi’s American audience has lately been grumbling that those are the very things that China is not committed to.
The White House has promised to make Chinese cyberattacks a major discussion point for Obama’s meetings with Xi on Thursday and Friday. American business leaders, who once had stars in their eyes at the thought of China’s huge markets, are deeply worried about the country’s murkiness when it comes to legal and regulatory transparency, and its unwillingness to allow foreign companies a level playing field.
With China’s economy no longer looking quite as exemplary — growth is slowing, and China’s stock market indexes plunged this summer — it’s going to be harder for Xi to ignore some of these complaints.
Xi can deflect some criticisms by pointing to his domestic anticorruption campaign, which has had impacts at every level of government and within the military. Corruption inevitably leads to waste, graft and lost opportunities. If it’s successful, the campaign will be beneficial for both the Chinese and the U.S. economies.
But the other criticisms may be harder for Xi to answer, which is why American business leaders and politicians need to keep pushing.
At this point, China’s economy is so large that its decisions sway global markets, which is why it’s all the more important for it to embrace long-term strategies instead of relying on currency devaluations, cyberhacking, or other quick fixes. The U.S. is one of the few nations with the power to force China to listen, which is why this week is so important.