Call for Washington, Beijing to engage in robust dialogue

Agricultural roundtable sees experts stress bilateral engagement, exchanges via various channels

The relationship between the United States and China might be at a low point, but it is heartwarming to see that interaction between both countries is still taking place, said Yawei Liu, a senior adviser on China at the Carter Center, which promotes democracy and global development.

Liu was referring to the virtual meeting of the 2023 US-China Agriculture Roundtable organized on April 11 by the US Heartland China Association (USHCA), a bipartisan organization committed to building stronger ties between 20 states in the US heartland and China.

At the roundtable, about a dozen researchers, scientists and professors from China and the US exchanged ideas on how to address rural development challenges and changes in their respective countries, along with ways to achieve optimal outcomes for people, animals, crops and the environment.

Jason Henderson, a professor and vice-president of Iowa State University’s extension and outreach programs, discussed the shift in US agricultural production from lowcost and high-quantity goods to a greater focus on food quality, nutritional value and sustainable production methods. The trend is forcing rural communities to focus on people-based development policies, said Henderson.

Xu Jin, associate professor and assistant dean of China Agricultural University’s College of International Development and Global Agriculture, shared a story about how a depopulated village in Yunnan province transformed idle houses into restaurants, meeting rooms, a cafe and book bar, and Airbnb accommodations to turn the village into an attractive tourist destination.

Kenneth Quinn, strategic adviser to the USHCA and president emeritus of the World Food Prize Foundation, said the roundtable, in its third year, is a new type of diplomacy

“Given that the relationship between our two governments has become more and more difficult, the model we developed has become a new and very interesting way to conduct diplomacy,” said Quinn.

“By having nongovernmental organizations like the USHCA and the CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) inviting governmental officials, they are more easily (able) to come together to speak,” Quinn said.

This new type of diplomacy happening in agricultural areas and not in capital cities, also sees nongovernmental organizations inviting officials to participate to allow productive dialogue, he added.

Quinn said he hopes this type of diplomacy helps the US and China to rise to the challenge of feeding billions of people globally with nutritious food produced in a sustainable and efficient way.

A letter addressed to US and Chinese leaders in the form of a paid advertisement in The Wall Street Journal on April 5 was shared at the dialogue. The letter was cited as an example of many US leaders wanting to see the US and China having an improved and more engaged relationship.

The letter, titled “On the Need to Stabilize Bilateral Relationship”, was signed by more than 20 US business and policy leaders, including three former US ambassadors to China, former federal officials and leaders of think tanks and businesses.

The lead signatory was Maurice Greenberg, chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co, a privately owned investment holding company. In July, he founded a group made up of senior US business and policy leaders to promote dialogue between the US and China.

“We are writing to encourage the leadership of both the United States and China to work together diligently to repair and stabilize the state of affairs between our two countries. We call for more robust dialogue now to alleviate the heightened temperature and better manage our many differences,” the letter said.

Alarmed by the recent deterioration in bilateral relations, the letter warned that “pursuing a path to conflict is untenable and would likely lead to one of humankind’s most unfortunate chapters”.

“It is in the national interest of both countries to reestablish a constructive dialogue based on mutual respect and a genuine desire to heal the relationship with courage and wisdom,” the letter said.