As tensions between Beijing and Washington grow, it’s easy to think the world’s two largest economies are in a full-on trade war where cooperation is no longer a possibility. This is not necessarily true, said some observers, as there are still reasons to hope for a stabilized trade relationship - if you know where to look.
“If people think all of America is now anti-China, that’s because they only see what’s going on in Washington DC. What they don’t see is how the states and cities are still open to business with China,” said He Weiwen, a former economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese consulates in San Francisco and New York.
Many US states, counties and cities are not following the Trump administration into this trade war with China, He noted in an op-ed written for the Global Times. Last July, three days after Washington declared a 25-percent tariff increase on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, then Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel visited China on a trade mission along with a 50-member delegation of mostly Chicago business leaders. A year later, Chicago trade officials visited China again to woo investors.
Last June in Los Angeles, business delegates from China mingled with their local counterparts on a business forum that covered areas such as clean technology, advanced manufacturing and e-commerce. Government numbers suggest that California was the number one recipient of foreign direct investment from China, totaling more than $16 billion in 2017. Trade with China that same year was $175.6 billion, accounting for 27.6 percent of the total value of China-US trade.
“We need to be looking at Washington DC.,” said He, “and we also need to look beyond the Beltway and at the states, the cities and the business community. The more we work with them, the better we will be able to manage a stable and healthy trade relationship with America.”
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