JACK MA SAYS U.S.-CHINA TRADE TENSION COULD LAST 20 YEARS

JaCk Ma, the cofounder and former chairman of alibaba Group holding Ltd., said the uS-China relationship could face 20 years of “turbulence” if the two superpowers aren’t careful in how they handle trade.

“We have to be very, very careful,” Ma said on thursday in an interview with bloombergtV.“We have to solve problems, we should not create more problems.”

While a full-scale trade war might not last that long, relations could end up rocky for the next two decades, he said. Ma emphasized the importance of the two countries working together and sharing technology.

the trade dispute, which has been going on for more than a year and a half, has already ensnared more than 70 percent of bilateral trade in goods.

if the two countries can’t resolve at least some of their differences in the coming weeks, the White house on december 15 will add 15-percent punitive tariffs on $160 billion in Chinese imports. China-based alibaba, one of asia’s biggest companies, is expected to ride out the storm better than some, thanks to booming online consumption in the world’s no. 2 economy.

but alibaba saw its stock dip earlier this fall on reports that the trump administration was weighing a limit on uS government pension funds buying Chinese stocks. Bloomberg News